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(music) ♪ Too late, too late ♪ ♪ To get your house across the street ♪ ♪ For the Lord is coming ♪

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♪ And he'll soon be in your town ♪ ♪ You may be made a mistake ♪ ♪ Or you may go ♪ ♪ Or you may go ♪

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♪ For you ♪ ♪ You may be made a mistake ♪ ♪ But you're living when Jesus comes ♪ ♪ Don't let him catch you when your words are done ♪

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♪ And when He shall come ♪ ♪ You will know just what you've done ♪ ♪ Won't you be ready ♪ ♪ When Jesus comes ♪

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And when He shall come, He will know just what you've done. His reward will be in His blood. And if you dare fight to find your name in the book of life, won't you be ready when Jesus comes?

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Won't you be ready when Jesus comes? Don't let him catch you when you're wild or numb. ♪ And when He shall come ♪ ♪ We will know just what You've done ♪

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♪ For You'll be ready when Jesus comes ♪ ♪ Oh, You'll be ready when Jesus comes ♪ ♪ Lord, don't let him catch you ♪ ♪ Let your words run down ♪

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♪ Night will heal, shall come ♪ ♪ He will know just what you've done ♪ ♪ Won't you be ready when Jesus comes ♪ ♪ Won't you be ready when Jesus comes ♪

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♪ Won't you be ready when Jesus comes ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ - Lift up these words, recorded in Luke, the 15th chapter, 17th verse.

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When he came to himself, he said, How many hard servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him,

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Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, I am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. [audience murmurs]

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And he arose and came to his father. [audience murmurs] But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion.

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and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

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But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him, put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it

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and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry.

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The subject of the message, faithful fatherhood. Faithful fatherhood. It is said that there are various stages that children go through

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in the assessment of their fathers. When they're four years old, they say, "My daddy can do anything." At seven years old, they say,

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My daddy knows a whole lot. At nine, daddy doesn't know quite everything. At 14 years of age, they say daddy is old fashioned. Then at 21, they say daddy's okay.

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At 35, I must get dad's input first. At 50, they say, "What would dad have thought about that?" Then at 60, they say, "I wish I could talk it over with my dad once more." So you see, there are various relationships during these varying ages.

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The relationship with Father is a changing one. And what is important for us to remember as we celebrate Father's Day, that it is not primarily the quantity of time

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that we spend, it's the quality of time that we spend with our families. So that it is important that we be there when we are needed and at every significant occasion.

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So you see, faithful fatherhood is a challenge. It's a challenge. And we're talking about more than just having a fertile sperm.

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Jesse Jackson said, you know, it's not that difficult to find a person who can make a baby. But to be able to rear a child in the way

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that he or she should go is the important thing. So it's a challenge, a great deal of responsibility. I remember being in the waiting room for fathers at the hospital and they came into the room

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and they pinned a little badge on me, you know, putting me in the Stark Club. And this is a strange feeling when it is announced that you are a father.

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It's a challenge for fatherhood. Has to do with the source of being. Father is in the role of a founder or a producer. and ancestor, fatherhood is of uttermost significance.

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And one of the problems we say plagues our nation today is the absence of fathers. And this somehow affects us in Austin where we are supposed to have

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one of the highest percentages of teenage pregnancies. And along with that is a high percentage of absent fathers. So not only is it important to recognize the challenge of fatherhood,

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but to recognize that fatherhood isn't something that we ought to find ourselves accidentally slipping into. Fatherhood is a calling of God. It's a calling and God has ordained it

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that those who are called to be fathers should teach their children in the home and should pray with them and demonstrate to them the good life. So fatherhood not only involves a challenge, not only involves a calling,

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a divine calling, but fatherhood, real fatherhood involves caring. Caring. Caring. And when we talk about caring for one's children, we are talking about discipline. This isn't something that should be left just to the mother. But it takes both father and mother.

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It takes father and mother to get them. And it takes father and mother to rear them in the proper way. So, this nurture, this discipline that I'm talking about,

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should be done with love. With love. I listened to a parent just this past week talking about another parent whose daughter had said some rather harsh

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words to the mother and the mother cried and so she said well what would you have done? I said well you don't need to ask me what I would have done. She said I had my child to understand I brought her into this world honey and I will take you out In other words, you're expected to follow discipline and to have discipline administered

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with love. Now here we have the story. They said to be the most popular story that Jesus ever told. It's about two sons.

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Two sons. That there was a good father here in this home. He provided for his children. He read them in the right way

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and set the proper example for them. He was a good father. He had two sons. And the younger of them,

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said, "Father, give me the potion of the inheritance that will come to me." And the father graciously provided his part. Now he hadn't worked for it. It was an inheritance. And he got his inheritance and he went into a far country.

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In other words, he wanted to put as much distance as possible between himself and his father. So he went into a far country and there he rented himself an apartment

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in that far country. and he began to live it up. And he wasted the inheritance.

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Now my brethren, we have an inheritance. It's a wonderful inheritance. It is the kind of inheritance that has been provided that will enrich our lives.

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Wonderful inheritance. If there's anything that has helped me, it has been the inheritance, the heritage. Heritage.

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And you don't have to go a great deal, a great distance in order to discover it. It's right around us. When I was growing up, in my home church,

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there was a chairman of the deacons, his name was Clarence Jackson. And he was sort of a dynamic model for me. I threw the papers and I learned a great deal from him because it was during the Depression

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when people didn't pay their bills, he always paid his on time. And I got the idea that when I grow up I want to be like Brother Jackson, pay my bills on time because I knew what it was there are those who didn't pay on time when you had to collect.

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And we would go, every time I would go to collect, we always had a long conversation. I was a teenager and I was reading all the things about politics and about the race and all of that,

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and we engaged in a great deal of dialogue. And that sort of enriched my life. He was interested in politics and all of that, and he was giving a Christian view,

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and the heritage of Jesus Christ, participating in our lives as he reflected it in our dealings year to year is a part of the heritage. Part of the heritage. It's there. Heritage. Frederick Douglass is a part of the heritage. I think if most black men read the life of Frederick Douglass during

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that very difficult period, they'd be inspired by it. And as I read the life of Frederick Douglass, here's a man, the system didn't want him to read, learn to read. In fact, that was against the law.

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So you give a black person an inch, he'll take a foot, don't ever teach him to read. That's what the master said when the mistress was telling him that she had taught him a little about how to read. Don't do that.

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But somehow, no school, laws against it, but somehow Douglas managed in such an awful system, Douglas managed to learn to read in a system that didn't want him to learn. And then he, on Sundays, he would have a little group gathered around him of slaves that he was secretly teaching how to read.

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And what happened to Douglas? Well, he gained his freedom. He was able to write a note and forge it, get on a ship, a train rather, and get out of the slave territory.

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And he became one of the best orators this country has produced. Masterful language he uses for Frederick Douglass. And somehow, I think if more read that life and understood how this man responded to the struggle, they wouldn't be complaining about the schools, but the schools not doing, but

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what we can do and what God has given us and how we can use what God has given us. That's the heritage. The problem is what do we do with the heritage? This young man wasted it.

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It was his, but he wasted it. He had access to it, but he wasted his inheritance. What are we doing with the inheritance? Wasted it.

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W.E.B. Du Bois, it's a part of the heritage. As a teenager, I read Souls of Black Folk, and I shall never forget how I felt when I said, This man who wrote this is interpreting how I feel much better than I could ever express it.

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It's a part of the heritage. Part of our heritage. What are we doing with it? What are we doing with it? Somehow we need to connect with the heritage. I remember when W.E.B. Du Bois came to Cleveland when I was living there and I went to hear

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him. I had another engagement. I was on a program somewhere else and when I got there he had finished speaking and he was just standing down in front of the altar there talking to someone and I didn't know

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what to say. I wanted to meet him but I hadn't heard him speak so I couldn't go up and say, "Dr. Du I have appreciated your lecture because I was mad. And so since I didn't know what to say, I just stood there a few feet away from him

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and admired the man. It's a part of the heritage to admire, to accept, to somehow profit from it, utilize it. It's a part of the heritage.

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Well this young man misused it. young man abused it, he wasted it, but finally he came to himself. And this is a good thing. Is that no matter how we have drifted, no matter how we have wasted our lives, no matter how much of that has occurred, when one comes to himself, there is always hope. And he said,

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as he thought on his way, he said, "How many hired servants my father has, "and they have bread, even the hired servants "got bread enough and to spare.

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"I will arise and go to my father, "and I'll say to him, 'Father, "'I've sinned against heaven and before thee, "'and I'm no more worthy

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"'to be called thy son. the hired servants. Now my brothers and sisters, the main character in this story is the father.

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He's the father. We focus many times our camera, we focus it upon this wayward boy who goes all out in the far country and wastes an inheritance.

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We keep the camera focused on him, but the main character is back there in the background. we ought to have our camera, it's the father. The father has provided.

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Father has cared and nurtured this boy. The father has waited, I don't know how long he waited before this boy came to himself. It could have been a few years,

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it could have been many years, but the father waits. And Helmut Thielecke calls this the waiting father. He just waits. He just waits for us to change.

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He waits for us to somehow turn from our wicked ways. The father waits. He waits. He waits.

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Oh, the patience. You see, that's what we see in the heavenly father. It's the grace of God. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,

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but the Father waits. Just keeps on waiting. I see him, I see her. I don't know how they're wasting my substance,

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but I'll just keep waiting. And he waits. Finally, this boy comes, all his life has deteriorated because he has abused the inheritance.

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Deteriorated. He doesn't have any shoes, he left home with shoes. But he's coming back barefoot. He left home with an expensive, exquisitely tailored robe,

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but he's coming back in rags. He left home with a pocket full of money, but he's coming back empty. So it's in this existential emptiness and he's plagued by loneliness that he comes back. And the father, oh, the father sees him afar off and runs and embraces him and kisses him

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on his neck. And the boy has his story already made. He has what he's gonna say, "Father, I, I, I..." He doesn't have time to finish it.

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The father said, "Wait." He says to the servants, "Bring forth the fatted calf." In other words, we're gonna have a feast! Put a ring on his finger, shoes on his feet,

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bring forth the best robe and put it on him Let us eat and be merry for this my son was dead but he's alive. His life now is alive with meaning. That's what it means to acknowledge the heavenly father. My brethren, it means for us to

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seek to emulate his example and it's depicted right here in the story. That's the kind of father we have for all of us and that's the kind of father I ought to try to be, you ought to try to be and to give thanks to God for a fateful fatherhood.

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Fateful fatherhood. Young Paul Sartre, in one of his writings that may be considered

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an expression of what was called Christian atheism, cries out, Christ, have we no Father? And there is no answer.

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The throne is empty in this story. And there is no answer save that of dull, drab nothingness. That was young Paul Sartre's view of our situation in the world. nothingness, no father.

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But the Christian testimony is different. We know in our hearts, we know through our faith

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and our relationship through Jesus Christ we know that we're not all offerings. No, no.

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We have a father. We have a father who watches over us. We have a father who

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knows us. We have a father We have a Father who helps us. We have a Father who guides and governs our lives. We have a Father.

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And so we can say, "Father, I stretch my hands to thee. "No other help I know. "If thou withdraw thyself from me, "oh, where then shall I go?"

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Thanks be to God. - We have a father who cares for us, a father who provides for us, a father who loves us,

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a father who disciplines us, a father who waits for us to change and draw nigh unto him because he has drawn nigh unto us

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to us through Jesus Christ. So as we sing the hymn of invitation, we extend the privilege of the church to accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life. Unite with this church family by letter, by Christian experience.

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We invite you to come. [MUSIC PLAYING] And all the churches open. [MUSIC PLAYING]

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Amen. Amen. [MUSIC PLAYING] God bless you.

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God bless you. God bless you. I stretch my hands to thee, Lord, I am at home. ♪ If I live long ♪

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♪ I shall not be ♪ ♪ Only a thousand miles away ♪ ♪ 'Cause you're my home ♪ ♪ I need my home ♪

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♪ Please come and give me a home ♪ ♪ If I lose my head ♪ ♪ And if our fate ♪ ♪ Would go with you ♪

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♪ I so hope ♪ ♪ That it ♪ ♪ Has been ♪ ♪ How true ♪

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♪ The faith ♪ ♪ Through me ♪ ♪ I live ♪ ♪ I bear it on behalf ♪

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♪ Only I can be seen ♪ ♪ I live, I sing ♪ I saw the hound, he ran out, he ran out. (dramatic music)

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(dramatic music) (dramatic music) (growling) (dramatic music)

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(dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music)

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(dramatic music) (dramatic music) (singing in foreign language) [Music]

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Amen. Let us listen to the report, Sister Austin. [Coughing] Reverend Griffin and members of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. We have coming to unite with the Ebenezer Baptist Church Brother Sean Clark from the First

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Baptist Church, Lauderdale, First Baptist Lauderdale Church, Memphis, Tennessee. Coming from Christian experience. His pastor is Reverend Charles L. Dinkins. He joined that church in

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1985 and we welcome a young single Christian man. You heard that, didn't you, that last part? Brother Clark, we are so delighted to have you come.

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Your pastor, Dr. Dinkins, yes, he offered me my first job when I finished seminary. He went to Oberlin where I went and I'm glad to make that connection. We're delighted to have you.

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We welcome you as a member to the family of God here at Ebenezer that we may join together in seeking to fulfill our Lord's commands. God bless you. Let's all say amen.

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All right. You may be seated. Amen. Would you bow your heads?

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Eternal God, our Father, we thank you for this message of faithful fatherhood, which comes to us wrapped in a story that Jesus told long ago.

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Help us to make the proper application to our lives that we may be faithful servants in thy kingdom. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord cause his face to shine upon you

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and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace now and forevermore. Amen.

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Amen. Would you come with me, please? Watch this right here. Thank you.

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[MUSIC - "ALL THE BEAUTIFUL"] (SINGING) Amen. Amen. Good to see you.

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[Music] [Music] [Music] How's Dr. Dinkins doing?

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