Father’s Day Blessing
	There are a number of verses which give a type of representation of Our Heavenly Father through our physical fathers. I think it would be appropriate to share a portion of those verses and the resulting portrait of the father that they present. 
He loves – (John 3:16) "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. 
He commands - (Prov 6:20-23) My son, observe the commandment of your father, And do not forsake the teaching of your mother; Bind them continually on your heart; Tie them around your neck. When you walk about, they will guide you; When you sleep, they will watch over you; And when you awake, they will talk to you. For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching is light; And reproofs for discipline are the way of life
He instructs - (Prov 1:8+9) Hear, my son, your father's instruction, And do not forsake your mother's teaching; Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head, And ornaments about your neck.
He guides, encourages, and warns - (1 Thess 2:10-12) You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers; just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. 
He trains - (Hos 11:3+4) Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in My arms; But they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, And I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; And I bent down and fed them.
He chastens - (Prov 3:11+12) My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord, Or loathe His reproof, For whom the Lord loves He reproves, Even as a father, the son in whom he delights. 
He disciplines - (Deut 8:5+6) Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.
He delights in his children’s wisdom (Prov 10:1a) A wise son makes a father glad... 
He is deeply pained by his children’s folly - (Prov 17:25) A foolish son is a grief to his father, And bitterness to her who bore him.
He is considerate of his children's needs and requests - (Matt 7:9+10) "Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone? "Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?
He is considerate of his children’s burdens, or sins (Mal 3:17 ) "And they will be Mine," says the Lord of hosts, "on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him."
He is considerately self-restrained - (Eph 6:4a ) And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; …
He has the view to the highest ends - (Eph 6:4b ) …but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. 
And he has compassion for his children - (Ps 103:13) Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him
	We pray that every father represented in this gathering will be blessed with the grace and the mercy and the joy and the guidance and the love that they present to us as an earthly type of Our Father in Heaven! So be it. 

This morning’s benediction 1 John 3:1-3 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Amen.