Well, howdy is Ashley Chase here, the executive director of Real Faith Ministries, which I get to run with my parents' past or mark and grace.

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Well, it's a great honor to be here. I've been looking forward to being with you very, very much. And it's interesting. Before I jump into the Bible, the nation has a great need, particularly for fathers and the fatherhood of God.

For the first time in the nation's history, the majority of children born to women, 30 years of age and younger, those children are born out of wedlock and 40% of kids tonight go to bed without a father.

And a lot of you single moms are carrying a double responsibility and a burden and a load. And when God chose to reveal Himself to us, He could have chosen any one of a number of images and He chose father.

And He fills that role of father and He claims that He is even a father to the fatherless. And what He does is He also raises up spiritual fathers.

Many who have the father's heart and want to see people born again through Jesus Christ, want to see them grow up and raised in the things of the Lord and help them to be nourished into flourish and the goodness of God.

The Apostle Paul was a man like that. He tells the Corinthians in the letter that he wrote to them. He says, you have a lot of teachers, a lot of people that will give you a classroom, a podcast, a book, or a blog, but you don't have many fathers.

And then He says, I became a father to you through the preaching of the gospel. And He calls Timothy Titus, Onesimus, his sons. And we talk of Abraham as our father and we worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, fathers and sons and generations.

And so it's a great honor and a joy to be here because I believe part of the ministry and the mantle that God has given to Trinity Fellowship is one of spiritual fatherhood through Pastor Jimmy Evans.

And it's a great honor and joy to be here and to observe and to learn. And I know this is a very big week for your church as Pastor Jimmy what you're assuming more leadership responsibility and that transition from spiritual father to son is underway.

So I'm going to stick around tomorrow and I'm going to be here to learn and to observe and to celebrate and to honor with you all.

And I wanted to personally on behalf of many other pastors and churches thank the elders of this church and to thank the people of this church for sharing your leadership so that that fatherly deposit could be made in many, including myself and there are many that are very, very grateful for your willingness to share your spiritual father and for the spiritual fathers in this house to share that man and those men with us.

So we love you. It's a great honor to be with you. I'm going to go ahead and pray and if you've got a Bible, find a revelation chapter four. And if you don't know your Bible well, just keep going to the right. You'll get there eventually.

Father God, I thank you so much for this opportunity to preach and to teach God's word. I pray Lord Jesus that for a moment we would not check our phones. We would not be distracted that we wouldn't be worried about our social media accounts or what people are saying about us or

thinking about us that we would not be distracted by the tasks and duties and responsibilities that are upon us this evening or will come upon us tomorrow. Holy Spirit, would you please give us a moment to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross, squaring its shame and sat down at the right hand of the father.

And Lord Jesus, might we see you right now having completed your redemptive work seated on a throne? May this be a meeting for us individually and collectively with you.

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