November 30, 2025 • 41 mins
Listen to Pastor Chris for his weekly sermons and lessons. Enjoy his down-to-earth and experiential style of communicating the Truths of an Eternal Life with Christ, which starts now and continues throughout all eternity.
It is made complete not only by His Sacrificial Act of the Cross but also by the Love, Grace, and mercy He has demonstrated, and serves as the model of how we should treat each other daily!
https://www.talknetworkradio.com/hosts/TNR
It is made complete not only by His Sacrificial Act of the Cross but also by the Love, Grace, and mercy He has demonstrated, and serves as the model of how we should treat each other daily!
https://www.talknetworkradio.com/hosts/TNR
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
John, and Jessica and Bill, thank you for leading us
in worship this morning. It's always a blessing, isn't it.
And Jessica, since you mentioned all the good things the
youth are doing, remind me that we want to get
together and show them about the Haiti mission trip. If
(00:22):
I don't bring it up from the pulpit, I'll probably
just forget about it completely. It is good to be
with you today. Yesterday I was at a car show.
There were three hundred cars there. It was a Father's
(00:42):
Day car show put on by another church, and there
was music and food and prizes and all sorts of
great stuff. But honestly, I am just as happy standing
in the pulpit as I am going out and hanging
out and looking at all that great old sheet metal.
(01:12):
I saw some beautiful cars there, but I would rather
be with the beautiful people of Jesus than with beautiful cars.
This week, I you know, it's Father's Day. Raise your
hand if you're a father. If you can't, okay, that's good. Well.
This week I saw an internet video of Dad's They
(01:36):
were all soldiers coming home from overseas and surprising their
kids by showing up when they were unexpected, and they
showed up at schools and at ballgames, and at workplaces
and at church it seemed, and most of them were
still in their fatigues. And the sons and daughters, every
one of them, upon seeing daddy, melted and they there
(02:00):
were pictures of kids running across the room, overturning chairs,
leaping up in the air, wrapping their arms around their necks,
breaking out in tears, all for Daddy. I tell you
this kind of thing, it'll make you weepy. Of course,
most nights when Dad gets home, things aren't quite that emotional.
(02:23):
Can you imagine Dad's You head out to home depot
and you get that new hammer you've been kneading, and
you get home and you pull into the driveway and
you see a big banner over the garage just says
welcome home Dad. Probably it's not going to happen tonight,
so don't count on it. The kids love and need
(02:47):
their dads, even if they don't always gush about it.
I needed my dad. I loved him. He wasn't home
very much. Some of you know the story that he
worked for Southern Pacific Railroad. His job. We lived in Tucson.
His job was to drive from El Paso, Texas to Oakland, California,
(03:09):
inspecting the tracks, making sure that the steel was in
good shape and safe for the trains. When he got done,
he turned around and did it again. He was gone
a lot, and I've often wondered in my life what
it would have been like and what I would have
been like if he'd had a job to let him
(03:31):
be home every night. Could I have learned anything? Do
you think from having my dad around? Probably? I'm pretty
sure that some of my bad qualities were embedded in
me in those years. And if he'd been home, would
I have been wiser or stronger or better able to
(03:55):
handle temptation? I'll probably never know that, at least not
on this side of heaven, because he had three kids
and a wife to provide for, and that to him
meant that he had to go on the road. Say,
(04:16):
I'm going to talk about fathers without being one. Mind you,
I see some fathers here. I see young men who
are someday going to be fathers. Most likely. I see
young ladies who are someday going to be married to fathers.
(04:41):
And I see ladies slightly older who are currently married
to father What I'm going to say today, although it's
about Father's Day, is good for all of us. And
I hope that by the end of our time together,
we'll all be stronger and more able to accomplish God's
will because what we see in His word this morning.
(05:01):
So let's pray together. Father, God, that name we call
you is bestowed by you on men who have children,
(05:25):
that name that we call them. Father. We call them
because we have a heavenly Father who created us all.
And we come here today and we thank you, We
give you honor and glory, and we ask that you
would work in our lives this morning to draw us
close to make us more like you. I pray that
(05:47):
you will work through my words and my lips and
my mind. And I pray that by your Holy Spirit
you will work in the hearts and minds of your
people here that you would be glorified. Thank you for
this opportunity, Thank you for my dad, for all the
dads to whom I'm speaking now, and we bless you
in the name of your son Jesus Amen. In America,
(06:13):
dads have a rough reputation on TV. Dads are almost
always disrespected, they're clueless, or they're dumb, or they're disreputable,
they're self centered. In the newspaper and on the TV,
we see of daddy's dealing drugs, and of parents growing
up in one parent homes, of pops going ballistic at
(06:36):
little League baseball games, and looking around we see whole
generations walking aimlessly because dad never aimed them. The problem
with dads is that often they simply do a poor
job of fathering. Read with me from Genesis chapter thirty seven,
(07:01):
and we'll see that this isn't a new problem. Story
of a father by the name of Jacob, you might
also know him as Israel. Beginning in chapter thirty seven
of Genesis, verse one, we read, Jacob lived in the
(07:25):
land where his father Isaac had stayed, the land of Canaan.
And this is the account of Joseph. Excuse me, this
is the account of Jacob. I'm reaching that age. I
need some reading glasses. This is the account of Jacob. Joseph,
a young I got an amen on that. This is
(07:45):
the account of Jacob. Joseph, a young man of seventeen,
was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of
Bilha and the sons of Zilpah. His father's wives, and
he brought their father a bad report about them. Now
Israel Joseph more than any of his other sons, because
he had been born to him in his old age,
and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. And
(08:09):
when his brother saw that their father loved him more
than any of them, they hated him and could not
speak a kind word to him. And Joseph had a dream,
and when he told it to his brothers, they hated
him all the more, for he said, listen to this
dream I had. We were binding sheaves of grain out
in the field, when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright,
(08:30):
while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.
His brother said to him, do you intend to reign
over us? Will you actually rule us? And they hated
him all the more because of his dream and what
he had said. Then he had another dream, and he
told it to his brothers. Listen, he said, I had
(08:50):
another dream, and this time the sun and the moon
and eleven stars were bowing down to me. When he
told his father as well as his brother, his father
rebuked him and said, what is this dream you had?
Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come
and bowed down to the ground before you. His brothers
were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter
(09:14):
in mind. Now his brothers had gone to graze their
flocks near Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, as you
know your brothers are grazing their flocks near Shechem, Come,
I am going to send you to them. Jacob the
son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham, also named Israel.
(09:39):
He's the father of all those we know as the
children of Israel. But you know he did a very
poor job of fathering his children. What do we see
in these few verses. Well, first of all we meet
Jacob's most famous son, Joseph, But he actually had many children.
(10:00):
In fact, he had twelve sons and several daughters by
four different women. Two of them he was officially married to,
and two were concubines. And the very first thing we
learned about him in this story is that he played
favorites among his kids. Says it right there in verse three.
Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons.
(10:24):
He gave him the best clothes, including a robe that
was nice enough to be called rich. King James version
calls it a coat of many colors, doesn't it? Tim
Rice called it the Amazing technicallor dream coat, but whatever
you call it. Dad Jacket said that Joseph was Dad's
(10:46):
number one, and you know it must have been gorgeous.
It must have been gorgeous. And you know, it's one
thing to think that maybe your parents sometimes played favorites.
I think all parents do that sometimes. But here it
is right in the Bible. It says that Joseph was
(11:09):
far and away his dad's favorite. How do you think
the older brothers like Judah and Reuben and Simeon felt
about that? You already know, don't you. The second thing
we learn about Jacob is that his other sons hated
their brother Joseph because of the way father treated them.
(11:35):
He hated they hated him. Thirdly, we find out that
Joseph is the guy who can shoot his mouth off
without a second thought. His brother hated him so much
that they won't even talk to him. It says, they
don't have a kind word for him. And one night
he goes or one morning, rather, he goes into the
(11:57):
living room and he says, guys, I've been dreaming that
you're all gonna bow down to me. You've heard the
expression make sure your brain is in gear before putting
mouth in motion. Well, that wasn't Joseph. He later earned
a reputation for wisdom, but at the age of seventeen,
(12:18):
he was just a jerk and Daddy put up with it. Oh. Now,
in verse ten, where he tells Daddy that you're gonna
bow down to me too, Daddy rebukes him, but he
doesn't actually do anything about it. Jacob was simply doing
a bad job. How about a job? And the rest
(12:41):
of this chapter we find him sending Joseph to his
older brothers who are tending sheep, and we find that
most of those sons devise a plot to murder him,
to kill their obnoxious little brother. When that doesn't work,
(13:06):
they decide to sell him into slavery instead. Can you
imagine a dad raising not one, because frankly, there are
a lot of fathers who have a son who turns
out to be disappointment. But can you imagine a father
raising a whole houseful of sons with the heart to
be murderers, with the heart to be slave traders who
(13:28):
are angry and jealous and bitter. And then look at
verse thirty one. Here in this chapter, they take him,
they sell him into slavery, They take his coat verse
thirty one, And they got Joseph's robe. They slaughtered a
(13:51):
goat and dipped the robe in the blood. And they
took the ornamented robe back to their father and said,
we found this. Examine it to see whether it is
your son's robe. And he recognized it and said, it
is my son's robe. Some animal has devoured him. Joseph
has surely been torn to pieces. And then Jacob tore
(14:15):
his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned his sons, his
son for many days. So the older sons bring this
fabulous creation, this unique coach, to their father and ask
him to identify it. So is this your sons, not
our brothers? Is this your sons? Take a good look, dad,
(14:39):
at all that's left of your favorite see the blood.
Draw your own conclusions, and we'll just stand here and
watch you as you break down. In chapter forty two,
we find out he still hasn't learned his lesson. There's
a famine and the older brothers must take their youngest brother,
(15:02):
Benjamin to Egypt to buy food, and Israel says no,
his brother Joseph is dead and he is the only
one left. If harm comes to him on the journey
you are taking, you will bring my gray head down
to the grave in sorrow. How do you think the
(15:25):
ten sons standing in front of him felt when he
said Benjamin is the only one left, or that if
he lost Benjamin he'd die, He wouldn't mind losing them.
It seems happy Father's Day, Jacob. Actually he had good
(15:54):
reason for worrying about how his sons would treat him.
He'd been a schemer his whole life. As a youngster,
he had tricked his dad and his brother and had
to flee for his life. He tricked his father in
law to get the best of that man's flocks. When
he returned to his brother's lands, he sent his sons
first ahead of him to see how his brother would
(16:19):
treat his family. Only when he saw that Esau welcomed
the family did he then go himself. Maybe he was
simply worried at this point that his sons would be
like he was. His bad behavior was coming back to
(16:42):
haunt him. Now, we can't say it was all his fault.
The Bible tells us that his dad Isaac had played
favorites too. He had two sons, Jacob and Esau, and
the Bible tells us that Esau was Jacob Isaac's favorite.
So he was a trickster from the beginning, but his
(17:03):
environment had shaped him too. That's not an excuse, though,
is it. You know? The Bible features lots of dads
who did poor jobs. Eli was a priest but were
told his sons stole from the offerings and seduced the
women who came to worship, and he didn't do anything
about it. The prophet Samuel had two sons and were
(17:26):
told they did not walk in his ways, but turned
aside for dishonest gain. They accepted bribes and perverted justice.
David the Great King raised great kids, didn't he. One
was a rapist, one was a murderer. Others tried to
seize the throne from him. Now they were good fathers
(17:48):
in the Bible too, But it's always surprising to me
how many good men did a bad job. And maybe
that's instructive for all of us guys. Maybe we need
to be on our guard because it's not a situation
any of us wants to be, and it's not a
job assessment that any of us wants to receive. So
(18:09):
what went wrong? What can we learn from these guys
get This failure often happens because fathers don't understand their role.
They don't know what they're doing. Not that not that
(18:30):
you're incompetent, but that you don't know what you're called
to do. How can you be a good father if
you don't know what that means? So what is the
role of fathers? We could take a poll of the
people in this room or people out in the street,
and we could see what the public thinks, and we
could ask kids find out what they want in a dad.
(18:52):
Or we can go down to BSU and talk to
doctors in the psychology department and get expert opinions. But
we're not going to do that. Instead, we are going
to talk to the one who designed fatherhood in the
first place, and we're going to ask him. The Bible
says that father is a description of God that he
has given and bestowed on the people of earth who
(19:17):
happen to have children. He lets you borrow his title, quincy.
It's his title. He is the father, but he lets
you use that name too. The Book of Ephesians, chapter
six is where the Lord gives a commandment that sums
(19:40):
up the role of fathers, a job description, if you will.
It's only a short verse, one that we could all
memorize today if we were of a mind to do so.
Ephesians chapter six, verse four says this, fathers, do not
provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in
(20:01):
the training and admonition of the Lord. Your job is
to raise up men and women who know and serve
Jesus Christ. On your outline, write that down next to
Ephesian sixty four. That's my summary. Your job is to
(20:21):
raise men and women who know and serve Jesus Christ.
Why because in Christ we find God meeting humanity. In Christ,
we see the mind of God clothed in human flesh.
(20:43):
In Christ, we see the totality of God in bodily form.
In Christ, we see God's solution to the problems of
this world. Christ lived a holy life, but he was
more than a holy man. He was sinless but died
to take away the sins of the world world, and
he lives empowering men and women to defeat sin. II.
(21:06):
Your kids need to know and serve this Christ, and
this is a life work in which parents can invest themselves. Amen.
What does the word God say? What is one thing
that fathers shouldn't do? It says they should not stir
(21:27):
up their kids to be angry. They shouldn't exasperate their children.
Think about Jacob's ten sons. They were angry because of
him and angry to the point of murder because of dad.
We see kids whose parents frustrate them no end with
(21:50):
shifting standards and changing rules. We see some kids who
are crushed by their parents who give them too much
weight or two men expectations, or the wrong expectations. We
see young people who are angry because they're given too
much freedom, wandering but wishing their parents would help them
(22:14):
make sense of the world. Fathers, do not give your
children a reason for righteous anger. Your own father has
instructed you this. But what does the Bible say you
should be doing? Three things? First? Do raise them? Well, David,
(22:41):
of course I'm raising my kids. I see them every day,
and boy do I see them. But are you really
raising them? Or are you just providing food and shelter?
In an xbox? I think of a farmer who wants
to grow a crop. He plows his field, he decides
what he wants to grow, and he chooses an appropriate fertilizer,
(23:04):
which he plows into the soil. He seeks out good seed,
he plants it. Over the course of time, he irrigates
the field, he weeds it, or in the case of
my dad, he had the kids do the weeding. He
protects the field from the birds by putting up a scarecrow,
he protects it from bugs, and after six months or
(23:26):
more of labor, he finally sees his crop grown up
and ready for harvest, and the father, like a good farmer,
acts intentionally. They don't raise a crop by chance and
need the new parents. Of course, they could think about it.
(23:47):
A farmer could get up one March day and look
out at his field and say, I think this year,
I'll just see what comes up. I think you'd see
at the end of the season, probably a lot of weeds.
(24:07):
He'd probably see about the same thing as a parent
who did the same thing, who just said I'm going
to see what comes up. What would come up would
mostly be trash, and what came up that was useful
(24:27):
would be by grace and nothing else. Parenting is intentional.
Fathers raise your kids. Thing two do train them in
the ways of the Lord. The Greek word here in
(24:50):
the text is pidea. When the Greeks used this word,
they meant to take a child and shape him, and
to fill him with their col culture and values, and
make him fit to be a citizen of the city.
In America, you can become a citizen by being born here,
(25:10):
or you can work for it. Most people who lived
in Athens were only considered fit to be worker ants.
They weren't fit to be citizens. They weren't qualified to
help lead the city. But the child who had been
this word pi did, who had been trained and raised
(25:34):
up properly, that child had the knowledge and the attitude
the heart to be a citizen. The apostle Paul tells us, fathers,
train your children, pidea them, mold their hearts and minds,
(25:56):
shaped them to God's design, fill them with his thoughts
and his ways. Your ultimate goal is that your children
would end up as imitations and imitators of the Lord.
That's what you're shooting for. Is it so strange? It's
(26:21):
a beautiful vision, isn't it to think that your little one,
or not so little one in some cases, who would
grow up to be like Christ beautiful, but Fathers is
going to take some work. Like an athlete to be trained.
(26:41):
A child needs a trainer and fathers guess who has
been given that job? You have another job title trainer
of children. Thing three. God says, do admonish them in
(27:02):
the Lord, raise them, train them, admonish them in the Lord.
Admonish isn't a word we use. Often. It means to
counsel or to caution, or to warn, or sometimes it
means to wag your finger in the kitchen. Mom says,
don't touch the stove it's hot, or don't you even
(27:25):
think about getting into that pie, or if you measure carefully,
that recipe will be great. Now. One of these is
a warning, and one is a lecture, and one is
some informative encouragement, But all three of them are admonitions.
(27:47):
Can you think of some spiritual admonitions you've received? How
about pray through your problems, or don't neglect gathering with
other believers so you can encourage each other, or in
Christ you will have strength for whatever you need to do.
And admonition is more like a verbal teaching than training.
(28:10):
Training is hands on. Admonishing is more about what you
say to one another. But both of these training, pideaing
and admonishing are equally necessary. I like the way Young's
literal translation expresses this verse, Fathers, provoke not your children,
(28:34):
but nourish them. In the instruction and admonition of the
Lord Fathers, you are to be nourishers of your children,
giving them good, healthy, spiritual food on a daily basis.
So now we know what fatherhood's all about. But now
we know what the job description is. But what do
(28:55):
we do with the information. What is our response to Fathershood? Well,
this is a command and it's a duty. Fathers, You've
got to step up to the plate. So men, I
have something for you, and that is you need to
commit yourself to this biblical mandate. This goes for fathers,
(29:21):
goes for grandfathers, men who aren't fathers, but no younger
guys that they can mentor younger guys who are going
to be dads someday, goes for all of us. You
start with the understanding of what your role is. Maybe think,
how can I raise a child like this? I'm not
(29:41):
a good enough Christian myself to raise a child like this?
Maybe not, But God has called you to be a
good Christian, hasn't he. So that's not an excuse to
say I'm not good enough. Well get good enough. Let
me share a verse that I've I find very encouraging.
Ephesians four twenty two, twenty three, and twenty four. You
(30:06):
were taught again. This is Ephesians four twenty two through
twenty four. You were taught, with regard to your former
way of life, to put off your old self, which
is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, and to be
made new in the attitude of your minds, and to
put on the new self, created to be like God
in true righteousness and holiness. So, Dad's if you want
(30:31):
to be a good father, start by being a good Christian.
Choose to put off the old, Choose to be transformed,
choose to put on the new. You've got to decide
to be a new man in Christ. But here's good
news for you. You can do it. You can do
(30:52):
it by God's grace. If you want, you can do it.
He has said that you can be a new self
living in God's character. You can be a righteous and
christ like man. Man. That's good news, isn't it, Because guys,
(31:12):
we blow it a lot, don't we But we can
do it. Keep going, keep going. Now, along with understanding,
you've got to implement the plan, can't. You can't just
let it sit. And you've got to do the plan.
And it starts today. Men, You who are fathers? You
who are going to be fathers? Yeah, I'm talking, I'm
(31:34):
talking to two little weirs. Guys, you have to choose
today to begin doing the work that it takes to
become a godly father. You will be imperfect, you will
be imperfect, but there's no better day to start than today. Now, women,
(31:55):
what about you? You've been sitting here letting me pick
on the men for twenty minutes. Now, I've been speaking
to fathers, but I told you there's nothing here that
doesn't apply to moms too, not a thing, but specifically,
on Father's Day, can I ask you to commit yourself
to encouraging and supporting the fathers around you. Encouraging and
(32:21):
supporting them. You see, most guys find this job of
being a godly man, a godly father. We find it
very intimidating because it's too big for us. Let's be honest, guys,
it's too big. But that said, we need encouragers reminding us,
(32:41):
exhorting us that we can get the job done, and
we must get the job done. We need your support.
And so I'm asking you, ladies, older ladies, younger ladies,
and those wonderful ninety eight percent of you who are
(33:04):
in between. I'm asking you to agree with the Lord
in your heart to pray for the men in your
life and to help them in this task. You have
fathers who need help, You have grandfathers who need help.
(33:32):
You look around and you see men who are mentors
to young people and they need help. You look around
at these little guys here on the front row. They
need help because you see, if they're going to be
godly fathers in twenty years, it's going to take some
(33:55):
shaping and training now, isn't it. They have no idea
about being a father. They're not worried about it, but
it starts now. Pray for them, ladies, Raising and training
and admonishing requires teamwork, and God has put you on
the team. Now, let me talk to the young people.
(34:19):
I want to talk to everybody between the age of
five and twenty all those who are avoiding my eyes
right now, listen to me. God has a word for
you too. I'm going to ask you to commit right
(34:42):
now to godly fatherhood and demanding it of your parents.
What I mean is this. It means that right now
God has called you to honor and respect your parents.
(35:03):
You know that already you are supposed to honor your
father and your mother. And there are no ifs, ands
or butts about that. Amen. That was mostly from the
fathers and mothers. But I could point to each one
of you young people and say you know you're supposed
to honor your father and your mother, and you would
say yes, sir. In fact, say this with me. I
(35:30):
want everybody between the age of five and twenty to
stand up. Stand up, Come on, Joel, stand up, and
I want you to look at me, and I want
you to say this, It is right to honor my parents.
(35:50):
Say it. Okay, your parents are gonna have to give
them a little bit of an elbow here. It is
right to honor my parents. Okay, you know the truth.
You know the truth. You can be seated. So you
need to commit yourself to being a godly obedient child
(36:12):
to those parents who are over you. But I also
gave you something else. I said you can demand it
from them, Okay, you can leave here today and say
to your dad, Dad, I need a godly father. I
want to grow up to become a godly adult, and
I'm putting you on notice that I want some good
(36:32):
leadership from you. Kids. You have a right to expect
that of your father's You know what, if they're going
to use a name that God has chosen for himself, father,
then they probably ought to try to do their best
to be a father. Now, if Dad's not available today,
(36:55):
you are here with someone. Somebody brought you. You didn't
walk down the street by yourself to get here. If
your dad's not here, then you can turn to that
older person who brought you and say, I'm putting you
on notice. I want some good godly leadership in my life.
(37:19):
What if you did walk in by yourself, find some
guy here at the church and say it to him.
You see, the Lord intends for you to have some
big bull elk in the herd to lead the way.
But they need to know that you want it. That
keeps all of us on our toes. And don't forget
(37:43):
young people. When you have children of your own, they
can expect the same thing from you. Now. Being a
father is a tough job. Procreation comes naturally, but fatherhood
takes some hard work. I saw Tony Dungee, the Super
(38:03):
Bowl winning coach of Indianapolis Colts, on TV. Every year
he hosts a father's and kids event there in Indianapolis.
He's a believer, committed Christian, and in these events he
tells the men and their kids, you're going to learn
something about football today, but you're also going to learn
(38:24):
something about life. I don't know what that is, because
I've never been to the seminar, but it's not enough
to know about football, even if it's Super Bowl football,
even if it's BSU Broncos football. You got to know
(38:44):
something about life. And I'll tell you something. I know
my father loved me, but I honestly don't know how
good a job he did. I'm not saying he did
a bad job. I'm just saying I don't know. I'm
not sure how much better job my dad could have done.
(39:09):
Father's mother's kids. Choose today. Choose today that at the
end of your life, your children will know that you
were or became a great and godly parent. Lord, God Father, God,
(39:41):
I do thank you for my father. I know that
in some difficult circumstances, he did the very best he could.
I thank you that you gave me a man I
could respect as my father. I want to pray for
(40:04):
the dads who are here, that today they will commit
themselves to not merely being daddy, but being a father
who raises children to know an honor Christ. And I
(40:24):
pray for the moms here that they will stand by
those fathers and help them. And I pray for those
who are not even physical moms or physical dads, but
who can stand around them and help them and support them,
(40:47):
who can mentor young people, or who can become great
fathers later. Let us be the kind of people you've
called us to be. And I pray that if there's
anyone here who doesn't understand what that means, who doesn't
understand this Christ I have talked about, who came to
(41:07):
earth as a man, the very mind of God and
human flesh, who died to forgive our sins, who reigns
on high as Savior and Lord, I pray you'll stir
that heart draw that person to you. And I thank
(41:33):
you because you are a father who loves all his
children and seeks our very best. I pray in the
name of Jesus amen
John, and Jessica and Bill, thank you for leading us
in worship this morning. It's always a blessing, isn't it.
And Jessica, since you mentioned all the good things the
youth are doing, remind me that we want to get
together and show them about the Haiti mission trip. If
(00:22):
I don't bring it up from the pulpit, I'll probably
just forget about it completely. It is good to be
with you today. Yesterday I was at a car show.
There were three hundred cars there. It was a Father's
(00:42):
Day car show put on by another church, and there
was music and food and prizes and all sorts of
great stuff. But honestly, I am just as happy standing
in the pulpit as I am going out and hanging
out and looking at all that great old sheet metal.
(01:12):
I saw some beautiful cars there, but I would rather
be with the beautiful people of Jesus than with beautiful cars.
This week, I you know, it's Father's Day. Raise your
hand if you're a father. If you can't, okay, that's good. Well.
This week I saw an internet video of Dad's They
(01:36):
were all soldiers coming home from overseas and surprising their
kids by showing up when they were unexpected, and they
showed up at schools and at ballgames, and at workplaces
and at church it seemed, and most of them were
still in their fatigues. And the sons and daughters, every
one of them, upon seeing daddy, melted and they there
(02:00):
were pictures of kids running across the room, overturning chairs,
leaping up in the air, wrapping their arms around their necks,
breaking out in tears, all for Daddy. I tell you
this kind of thing, it'll make you weepy. Of course,
most nights when Dad gets home, things aren't quite that emotional.
(02:23):
Can you imagine Dad's You head out to home depot
and you get that new hammer you've been kneading, and
you get home and you pull into the driveway and
you see a big banner over the garage just says
welcome home Dad. Probably it's not going to happen tonight,
so don't count on it. The kids love and need
(02:47):
their dads, even if they don't always gush about it.
I needed my dad. I loved him. He wasn't home
very much. Some of you know the story that he
worked for Southern Pacific Railroad. His job. We lived in Tucson.
His job was to drive from El Paso, Texas to Oakland, California,
(03:09):
inspecting the tracks, making sure that the steel was in
good shape and safe for the trains. When he got done,
he turned around and did it again. He was gone
a lot, and I've often wondered in my life what
it would have been like and what I would have
been like if he'd had a job to let him
(03:31):
be home every night. Could I have learned anything? Do
you think from having my dad around? Probably? I'm pretty
sure that some of my bad qualities were embedded in
me in those years. And if he'd been home, would
I have been wiser or stronger or better able to
(03:55):
handle temptation? I'll probably never know that, at least not
on this side of heaven, because he had three kids
and a wife to provide for, and that to him
meant that he had to go on the road. Say,
(04:16):
I'm going to talk about fathers without being one. Mind you,
I see some fathers here. I see young men who
are someday going to be fathers. Most likely. I see
young ladies who are someday going to be married to fathers.
(04:41):
And I see ladies slightly older who are currently married
to father What I'm going to say today, although it's
about Father's Day, is good for all of us. And
I hope that by the end of our time together,
we'll all be stronger and more able to accomplish God's
will because what we see in His word this morning.
(05:01):
So let's pray together. Father, God, that name we call
you is bestowed by you on men who have children,
(05:25):
that name that we call them. Father. We call them
because we have a heavenly Father who created us all.
And we come here today and we thank you, We
give you honor and glory, and we ask that you
would work in our lives this morning to draw us
close to make us more like you. I pray that
(05:47):
you will work through my words and my lips and
my mind. And I pray that by your Holy Spirit
you will work in the hearts and minds of your
people here that you would be glorified. Thank you for
this opportunity, Thank you for my dad, for all the
dads to whom I'm speaking now, and we bless you
in the name of your son Jesus Amen. In America,
(06:13):
dads have a rough reputation on TV. Dads are almost
always disrespected, they're clueless, or they're dumb, or they're disreputable,
they're self centered. In the newspaper and on the TV,
we see of daddy's dealing drugs, and of parents growing
up in one parent homes, of pops going ballistic at
(06:36):
little League baseball games, and looking around we see whole
generations walking aimlessly because dad never aimed them. The problem
with dads is that often they simply do a poor
job of fathering. Read with me from Genesis chapter thirty seven,
(07:01):
and we'll see that this isn't a new problem. Story
of a father by the name of Jacob, you might
also know him as Israel. Beginning in chapter thirty seven
of Genesis, verse one, we read, Jacob lived in the
(07:25):
land where his father Isaac had stayed, the land of Canaan.
And this is the account of Joseph. Excuse me, this
is the account of Jacob. I'm reaching that age. I
need some reading glasses. This is the account of Jacob. Joseph,
a young I got an amen on that. This is
(07:45):
the account of Jacob. Joseph, a young man of seventeen,
was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of
Bilha and the sons of Zilpah. His father's wives, and
he brought their father a bad report about them. Now
Israel Joseph more than any of his other sons, because
he had been born to him in his old age,
and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. And
(08:09):
when his brother saw that their father loved him more
than any of them, they hated him and could not
speak a kind word to him. And Joseph had a dream,
and when he told it to his brothers, they hated
him all the more, for he said, listen to this
dream I had. We were binding sheaves of grain out
in the field, when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright,
(08:30):
while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.
His brother said to him, do you intend to reign
over us? Will you actually rule us? And they hated
him all the more because of his dream and what
he had said. Then he had another dream, and he
told it to his brothers. Listen, he said, I had
(08:50):
another dream, and this time the sun and the moon
and eleven stars were bowing down to me. When he
told his father as well as his brother, his father
rebuked him and said, what is this dream you had?
Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come
and bowed down to the ground before you. His brothers
were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter
(09:14):
in mind. Now his brothers had gone to graze their
flocks near Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, as you
know your brothers are grazing their flocks near Shechem, Come,
I am going to send you to them. Jacob the
son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham, also named Israel.
(09:39):
He's the father of all those we know as the
children of Israel. But you know he did a very
poor job of fathering his children. What do we see
in these few verses. Well, first of all we meet
Jacob's most famous son, Joseph, But he actually had many children.
(10:00):
In fact, he had twelve sons and several daughters by
four different women. Two of them he was officially married to,
and two were concubines. And the very first thing we
learned about him in this story is that he played
favorites among his kids. Says it right there in verse three.
Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons.
(10:24):
He gave him the best clothes, including a robe that
was nice enough to be called rich. King James version
calls it a coat of many colors, doesn't it? Tim
Rice called it the Amazing technicallor dream coat, but whatever
you call it. Dad Jacket said that Joseph was Dad's
(10:46):
number one, and you know it must have been gorgeous.
It must have been gorgeous. And you know, it's one
thing to think that maybe your parents sometimes played favorites.
I think all parents do that sometimes. But here it
is right in the Bible. It says that Joseph was
(11:09):
far and away his dad's favorite. How do you think
the older brothers like Judah and Reuben and Simeon felt
about that? You already know, don't you. The second thing
we learn about Jacob is that his other sons hated
their brother Joseph because of the way father treated them.
(11:35):
He hated they hated him. Thirdly, we find out that
Joseph is the guy who can shoot his mouth off
without a second thought. His brother hated him so much
that they won't even talk to him. It says, they
don't have a kind word for him. And one night
he goes or one morning, rather, he goes into the
(11:57):
living room and he says, guys, I've been dreaming that
you're all gonna bow down to me. You've heard the
expression make sure your brain is in gear before putting
mouth in motion. Well, that wasn't Joseph. He later earned
a reputation for wisdom, but at the age of seventeen,
(12:18):
he was just a jerk and Daddy put up with it. Oh. Now,
in verse ten, where he tells Daddy that you're gonna
bow down to me too, Daddy rebukes him, but he
doesn't actually do anything about it. Jacob was simply doing
a bad job. How about a job? And the rest
(12:41):
of this chapter we find him sending Joseph to his
older brothers who are tending sheep, and we find that
most of those sons devise a plot to murder him,
to kill their obnoxious little brother. When that doesn't work,
(13:06):
they decide to sell him into slavery instead. Can you
imagine a dad raising not one, because frankly, there are
a lot of fathers who have a son who turns
out to be disappointment. But can you imagine a father
raising a whole houseful of sons with the heart to
be murderers, with the heart to be slave traders who
(13:28):
are angry and jealous and bitter. And then look at
verse thirty one. Here in this chapter, they take him,
they sell him into slavery, They take his coat verse
thirty one, And they got Joseph's robe. They slaughtered a
(13:51):
goat and dipped the robe in the blood. And they
took the ornamented robe back to their father and said,
we found this. Examine it to see whether it is
your son's robe. And he recognized it and said, it
is my son's robe. Some animal has devoured him. Joseph
has surely been torn to pieces. And then Jacob tore
(14:15):
his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned his sons, his
son for many days. So the older sons bring this
fabulous creation, this unique coach, to their father and ask
him to identify it. So is this your sons, not
our brothers? Is this your sons? Take a good look, dad,
(14:39):
at all that's left of your favorite see the blood.
Draw your own conclusions, and we'll just stand here and
watch you as you break down. In chapter forty two,
we find out he still hasn't learned his lesson. There's
a famine and the older brothers must take their youngest brother,
(15:02):
Benjamin to Egypt to buy food, and Israel says no,
his brother Joseph is dead and he is the only
one left. If harm comes to him on the journey
you are taking, you will bring my gray head down
to the grave in sorrow. How do you think the
(15:25):
ten sons standing in front of him felt when he
said Benjamin is the only one left, or that if
he lost Benjamin he'd die, He wouldn't mind losing them.
It seems happy Father's Day, Jacob. Actually he had good
(15:54):
reason for worrying about how his sons would treat him.
He'd been a schemer his whole life. As a youngster,
he had tricked his dad and his brother and had
to flee for his life. He tricked his father in
law to get the best of that man's flocks. When
he returned to his brother's lands, he sent his sons
first ahead of him to see how his brother would
(16:19):
treat his family. Only when he saw that Esau welcomed
the family did he then go himself. Maybe he was
simply worried at this point that his sons would be
like he was. His bad behavior was coming back to
(16:42):
haunt him. Now, we can't say it was all his fault.
The Bible tells us that his dad Isaac had played
favorites too. He had two sons, Jacob and Esau, and
the Bible tells us that Esau was Jacob Isaac's favorite.
So he was a trickster from the beginning, but his
(17:03):
environment had shaped him too. That's not an excuse, though,
is it. You know? The Bible features lots of dads
who did poor jobs. Eli was a priest but were
told his sons stole from the offerings and seduced the
women who came to worship, and he didn't do anything
about it. The prophet Samuel had two sons and were
(17:26):
told they did not walk in his ways, but turned
aside for dishonest gain. They accepted bribes and perverted justice.
David the Great King raised great kids, didn't he. One
was a rapist, one was a murderer. Others tried to
seize the throne from him. Now they were good fathers
(17:48):
in the Bible too, But it's always surprising to me
how many good men did a bad job. And maybe
that's instructive for all of us guys. Maybe we need
to be on our guard because it's not a situation
any of us wants to be, and it's not a
job assessment that any of us wants to receive. So
(18:09):
what went wrong? What can we learn from these guys
get This failure often happens because fathers don't understand their role.
They don't know what they're doing. Not that not that
(18:30):
you're incompetent, but that you don't know what you're called
to do. How can you be a good father if
you don't know what that means? So what is the
role of fathers? We could take a poll of the
people in this room or people out in the street,
and we could see what the public thinks, and we
could ask kids find out what they want in a dad.
(18:52):
Or we can go down to BSU and talk to
doctors in the psychology department and get expert opinions. But
we're not going to do that. Instead, we are going
to talk to the one who designed fatherhood in the
first place, and we're going to ask him. The Bible
says that father is a description of God that he
has given and bestowed on the people of earth who
(19:17):
happen to have children. He lets you borrow his title, quincy.
It's his title. He is the father, but he lets
you use that name too. The Book of Ephesians, chapter
six is where the Lord gives a commandment that sums
(19:40):
up the role of fathers, a job description, if you will.
It's only a short verse, one that we could all
memorize today if we were of a mind to do so.
Ephesians chapter six, verse four says this, fathers, do not
provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in
(20:01):
the training and admonition of the Lord. Your job is
to raise up men and women who know and serve
Jesus Christ. On your outline, write that down next to
Ephesian sixty four. That's my summary. Your job is to
(20:21):
raise men and women who know and serve Jesus Christ.
Why because in Christ we find God meeting humanity. In Christ,
we see the mind of God clothed in human flesh.
(20:43):
In Christ, we see the totality of God in bodily form.
In Christ, we see God's solution to the problems of
this world. Christ lived a holy life, but he was
more than a holy man. He was sinless but died
to take away the sins of the world world, and
he lives empowering men and women to defeat sin. II.
(21:06):
Your kids need to know and serve this Christ, and
this is a life work in which parents can invest themselves. Amen.
What does the word God say? What is one thing
that fathers shouldn't do? It says they should not stir
(21:27):
up their kids to be angry. They shouldn't exasperate their children.
Think about Jacob's ten sons. They were angry because of
him and angry to the point of murder because of dad.
We see kids whose parents frustrate them no end with
(21:50):
shifting standards and changing rules. We see some kids who
are crushed by their parents who give them too much
weight or two men expectations, or the wrong expectations. We
see young people who are angry because they're given too
much freedom, wandering but wishing their parents would help them
(22:14):
make sense of the world. Fathers, do not give your
children a reason for righteous anger. Your own father has
instructed you this. But what does the Bible say you
should be doing? Three things? First? Do raise them? Well, David,
(22:41):
of course I'm raising my kids. I see them every day,
and boy do I see them. But are you really
raising them? Or are you just providing food and shelter?
In an xbox? I think of a farmer who wants
to grow a crop. He plows his field, he decides
what he wants to grow, and he chooses an appropriate fertilizer,
(23:04):
which he plows into the soil. He seeks out good seed,
he plants it. Over the course of time, he irrigates
the field, he weeds it, or in the case of
my dad, he had the kids do the weeding. He
protects the field from the birds by putting up a scarecrow,
he protects it from bugs, and after six months or
(23:26):
more of labor, he finally sees his crop grown up
and ready for harvest, and the father, like a good farmer,
acts intentionally. They don't raise a crop by chance and
need the new parents. Of course, they could think about it.
(23:47):
A farmer could get up one March day and look
out at his field and say, I think this year,
I'll just see what comes up. I think you'd see
at the end of the season, probably a lot of weeds.
(24:07):
He'd probably see about the same thing as a parent
who did the same thing, who just said I'm going
to see what comes up. What would come up would
mostly be trash, and what came up that was useful
(24:27):
would be by grace and nothing else. Parenting is intentional.
Fathers raise your kids. Thing two do train them in
the ways of the Lord. The Greek word here in
(24:50):
the text is pidea. When the Greeks used this word,
they meant to take a child and shape him, and
to fill him with their col culture and values, and
make him fit to be a citizen of the city.
In America, you can become a citizen by being born here,
(25:10):
or you can work for it. Most people who lived
in Athens were only considered fit to be worker ants.
They weren't fit to be citizens. They weren't qualified to
help lead the city. But the child who had been
this word pi did, who had been trained and raised
(25:34):
up properly, that child had the knowledge and the attitude
the heart to be a citizen. The apostle Paul tells us, fathers,
train your children, pidea them, mold their hearts and minds,
(25:56):
shaped them to God's design, fill them with his thoughts
and his ways. Your ultimate goal is that your children
would end up as imitations and imitators of the Lord.
That's what you're shooting for. Is it so strange? It's
(26:21):
a beautiful vision, isn't it to think that your little one,
or not so little one in some cases, who would
grow up to be like Christ beautiful, but Fathers is
going to take some work. Like an athlete to be trained.
(26:41):
A child needs a trainer and fathers guess who has
been given that job? You have another job title trainer
of children. Thing three. God says, do admonish them in
(27:02):
the Lord, raise them, train them, admonish them in the Lord.
Admonish isn't a word we use. Often. It means to
counsel or to caution, or to warn, or sometimes it
means to wag your finger in the kitchen. Mom says,
don't touch the stove it's hot, or don't you even
(27:25):
think about getting into that pie, or if you measure carefully,
that recipe will be great. Now. One of these is
a warning, and one is a lecture, and one is
some informative encouragement, But all three of them are admonitions.
(27:47):
Can you think of some spiritual admonitions you've received? How
about pray through your problems, or don't neglect gathering with
other believers so you can encourage each other, or in
Christ you will have strength for whatever you need to do.
And admonition is more like a verbal teaching than training.
(28:10):
Training is hands on. Admonishing is more about what you
say to one another. But both of these training, pideaing
and admonishing are equally necessary. I like the way Young's
literal translation expresses this verse, Fathers, provoke not your children,
(28:34):
but nourish them. In the instruction and admonition of the
Lord Fathers, you are to be nourishers of your children,
giving them good, healthy, spiritual food on a daily basis.
So now we know what fatherhood's all about. But now
we know what the job description is. But what do
(28:55):
we do with the information. What is our response to Fathershood? Well,
this is a command and it's a duty. Fathers, You've
got to step up to the plate. So men, I
have something for you, and that is you need to
commit yourself to this biblical mandate. This goes for fathers,
(29:21):
goes for grandfathers, men who aren't fathers, but no younger
guys that they can mentor younger guys who are going
to be dads someday, goes for all of us. You
start with the understanding of what your role is. Maybe think,
how can I raise a child like this? I'm not
(29:41):
a good enough Christian myself to raise a child like this?
Maybe not, But God has called you to be a
good Christian, hasn't he. So that's not an excuse to
say I'm not good enough. Well get good enough. Let
me share a verse that I've I find very encouraging.
Ephesians four twenty two, twenty three, and twenty four. You
(30:06):
were taught again. This is Ephesians four twenty two through
twenty four. You were taught, with regard to your former
way of life, to put off your old self, which
is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, and to be
made new in the attitude of your minds, and to
put on the new self, created to be like God
in true righteousness and holiness. So, Dad's if you want
(30:31):
to be a good father, start by being a good Christian.
Choose to put off the old, Choose to be transformed,
choose to put on the new. You've got to decide
to be a new man in Christ. But here's good
news for you. You can do it. You can do
(30:52):
it by God's grace. If you want, you can do it.
He has said that you can be a new self
living in God's character. You can be a righteous and
christ like man. Man. That's good news, isn't it, Because guys,
(31:12):
we blow it a lot, don't we But we can
do it. Keep going, keep going. Now, along with understanding,
you've got to implement the plan, can't. You can't just
let it sit. And you've got to do the plan.
And it starts today. Men, You who are fathers? You
who are going to be fathers? Yeah, I'm talking, I'm
(31:34):
talking to two little weirs. Guys, you have to choose
today to begin doing the work that it takes to
become a godly father. You will be imperfect, you will
be imperfect, but there's no better day to start than today. Now, women,
(31:55):
what about you? You've been sitting here letting me pick
on the men for twenty minutes. Now, I've been speaking
to fathers, but I told you there's nothing here that
doesn't apply to moms too, not a thing, but specifically,
on Father's Day, can I ask you to commit yourself
to encouraging and supporting the fathers around you. Encouraging and
(32:21):
supporting them. You see, most guys find this job of
being a godly man, a godly father. We find it
very intimidating because it's too big for us. Let's be honest, guys,
it's too big. But that said, we need encouragers reminding us,
(32:41):
exhorting us that we can get the job done, and
we must get the job done. We need your support.
And so I'm asking you, ladies, older ladies, younger ladies,
and those wonderful ninety eight percent of you who are
(33:04):
in between. I'm asking you to agree with the Lord
in your heart to pray for the men in your
life and to help them in this task. You have
fathers who need help, You have grandfathers who need help.
(33:32):
You look around and you see men who are mentors
to young people and they need help. You look around
at these little guys here on the front row. They
need help because you see, if they're going to be
godly fathers in twenty years, it's going to take some
(33:55):
shaping and training now, isn't it. They have no idea
about being a father. They're not worried about it, but
it starts now. Pray for them, ladies, Raising and training
and admonishing requires teamwork, and God has put you on
the team. Now, let me talk to the young people.
(34:19):
I want to talk to everybody between the age of
five and twenty all those who are avoiding my eyes
right now, listen to me. God has a word for
you too. I'm going to ask you to commit right
(34:42):
now to godly fatherhood and demanding it of your parents.
What I mean is this. It means that right now
God has called you to honor and respect your parents.
(35:03):
You know that already you are supposed to honor your
father and your mother. And there are no ifs, ands
or butts about that. Amen. That was mostly from the
fathers and mothers. But I could point to each one
of you young people and say you know you're supposed
to honor your father and your mother, and you would
say yes, sir. In fact, say this with me. I
(35:30):
want everybody between the age of five and twenty to
stand up. Stand up, Come on, Joel, stand up, and
I want you to look at me, and I want
you to say this, It is right to honor my parents.
(35:50):
Say it. Okay, your parents are gonna have to give
them a little bit of an elbow here. It is
right to honor my parents. Okay, you know the truth.
You know the truth. You can be seated. So you
need to commit yourself to being a godly obedient child
(36:12):
to those parents who are over you. But I also
gave you something else. I said you can demand it
from them, Okay, you can leave here today and say
to your dad, Dad, I need a godly father. I
want to grow up to become a godly adult, and
I'm putting you on notice that I want some good
(36:32):
leadership from you. Kids. You have a right to expect
that of your father's You know what, if they're going
to use a name that God has chosen for himself, father,
then they probably ought to try to do their best
to be a father. Now, if Dad's not available today,
(36:55):
you are here with someone. Somebody brought you. You didn't
walk down the street by yourself to get here. If
your dad's not here, then you can turn to that
older person who brought you and say, I'm putting you
on notice. I want some good godly leadership in my life.
(37:19):
What if you did walk in by yourself, find some
guy here at the church and say it to him.
You see, the Lord intends for you to have some
big bull elk in the herd to lead the way.
But they need to know that you want it. That
keeps all of us on our toes. And don't forget
(37:43):
young people. When you have children of your own, they
can expect the same thing from you. Now. Being a
father is a tough job. Procreation comes naturally, but fatherhood
takes some hard work. I saw Tony Dungee, the Super
(38:03):
Bowl winning coach of Indianapolis Colts, on TV. Every year
he hosts a father's and kids event there in Indianapolis.
He's a believer, committed Christian, and in these events he
tells the men and their kids, you're going to learn
something about football today, but you're also going to learn
(38:24):
something about life. I don't know what that is, because
I've never been to the seminar, but it's not enough
to know about football, even if it's Super Bowl football,
even if it's BSU Broncos football. You got to know
(38:44):
something about life. And I'll tell you something. I know
my father loved me, but I honestly don't know how
good a job he did. I'm not saying he did
a bad job. I'm just saying I don't know. I'm
not sure how much better job my dad could have done.
(39:09):
Father's mother's kids. Choose today. Choose today that at the
end of your life, your children will know that you
were or became a great and godly parent. Lord, God Father, God,
(39:41):
I do thank you for my father. I know that
in some difficult circumstances, he did the very best he could.
I thank you that you gave me a man I
could respect as my father. I want to pray for
(40:04):
the dads who are here, that today they will commit
themselves to not merely being daddy, but being a father
who raises children to know an honor Christ. And I
(40:24):
pray for the moms here that they will stand by
those fathers and help them. And I pray for those
who are not even physical moms or physical dads, but
who can stand around them and help them and support them,
(40:47):
who can mentor young people, or who can become great
fathers later. Let us be the kind of people you've
called us to be. And I pray that if there's
anyone here who doesn't understand what that means, who doesn't
understand this Christ I have talked about, who came to
(41:07):
earth as a man, the very mind of God and
human flesh, who died to forgive our sins, who reigns
on high as Savior and Lord, I pray you'll stir
that heart draw that person to you. And I thank
(41:33):
you because you are a father who loves all his
children and seeks our very best. I pray in the
name of Jesus amen
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.