A Father's Heart

[0:00] Well, for a short while I'd like us to turn back to the passage that we read in Luke chapter 1. The verses that we read in this passage are describing for us the event when Gabriel came to speak to Zechariah and to announce the birth of John the Baptist.

[0:21] This, of course, is a hugely significant event in the history of God's plan of redemption. And in many ways it marks the transition from the Old Testament into the New Testament.

[0:33] God is making a very important announcement. But, of course, the importance of that announcement is not just relevant to Zechariah and the people of his day.

[0:44] These words are still incredibly important and relevant to us today in 2016. And so Gabriel comes and he speaks to Zechariah and he first of all explains what is going to happen.

[1:01] He says that he is going to have a child. Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name John.

[1:15] And he then goes on to explain why this is going to happen. Verses 13 to 15 give an outline of what his ministry is going to be.

[1:27] This child called John is going to be the source of great joy. He is going to be great before the Lord and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. Then in verse 16 we see a specific detail of what John's job will be.

[1:42] He is calling people to repent. He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. So Gabriel is telling that this child is going to come and he is explaining what this child is going to do.

[1:59] But then we come to verse 17. And it is this verse that gives specific details of what John is going to achieve.

[2:10] The angel is explaining the purpose of John the Baptist's ministry. And he says he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.

[2:37] And I want us to focus in particular on the statement near the beginning of that verse where Gabriel says that a key part of John's role is to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children.

[2:59] Now this is really I think quite fascinating. That when Gabriel comes to explain what John is going to do, he doesn't mention baptism, even though John was John the Baptist.

[3:12] He doesn't mention in any great detail any content of how God's salvation is going to be worked out. And he doesn't even mention the word Messiah, which of course was Jesus and John was his forerunner.

[3:27] Instead, the angel Gabriel says that John is going to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.

[3:39] And these are the words I want us to think about for a wee while this morning. And we're going to ask one or two questions. First of all, we have to ask, what exactly does this mean?

[3:52] It's an intriguing phrase. And the exact meaning of it is not altogether clear. In fact, it's the kind of verse that you could also always read through very quickly and not even really stop to think about.

[4:08] What does Gabriel mean when he says this? Well, there's actually a few different views regarding what this refers to. Some argue that the fathers are the Jews and the children are the Gentiles.

[4:20] The idea being that in the Old Testament, God's dealings had been specifically with the Jewish people. And then when we come into the New Testament, we see that that is expanded and the message reaches out to all the nations.

[4:35] And so some people argue that this verse is referring to that, that the fathers are the Jews and the children are the Gentiles. So that's one option. And some people believe that that's the case.

[4:46] Other people think that the fathers are what we call the patriarchs, which is basically the key Old Testament figures. People like Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, those key figures in the history of Israel.

[5:03] And the children are the current generation. So, again, the idea being that this is a reference to the Old Testament kind of making a transition towards the current generation of John's age.

[5:18] That the fathers are the patriarchs, the children are the current generation. That's another option. And maybe that's true. But sometimes when we face a passage in the New Testament that can be a bit hard to understand, it can always be a good idea to go back to the Old Testament and to see where this text may have come from.

[5:38] And what is being said in this verse is in fact a quote from the Old Testament. In fact, it's a quote from the very last verse of the Old Testament. Malachi chapter 4, verse 5, where it says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.

[6:15] So that's where this verse has come from and Gabriel is clearly referring to it. And it's very interesting if we go back to the book of Malachi because at that time, in the book of Malachi, one of the big problems in Israel was that there was a breakdown of the family unit.

[6:35] If you read Malachi chapter 2, you'll see many of the details. I'll read verse 16 for you. It says, The man who does not love his wife, but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts.

[6:50] So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not be faithless. The rest of Malachi chapter 2 expands on this and it talks about the fact that the people of Israel at that time were committing to inappropriate marriages and at the same time, they were getting very easily divorced from one another.

[7:11] And the situation there was one, a bit like today, where the family unit was being undermined and wives were being taken and discarded.

[7:24] The family unit was breaking down. So, I personally am of the view that this verse, this reference in Luke chapter 17, Luke chapter 1 verse 17, is talking about the restoration of the family unit.

[7:43] When Gabriel says that he wants, that John is to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, it's talking about putting right the kind of thing that was going wrong in Malachi and has been going wrong ever since.

[7:59] So, this verse is pointing us towards a restored and healthy family unit. But why would that be the case?

[8:11] Why is this important? If you think of all the things that Gabriel could have said about John the Baptist, why does he choose to say this? Why is this a priority?

[8:24] Well, there's two things to say here. The first is that family is incredibly important to God. If you pick up the Bible and read through it, one theme that you are going to see coming up again and again and again is the importance of family.

[8:46] From the very beginning of the Bible right to the end, family is at the very centre of it. If you go back to Eden, when everything was perfect, before sin came into the world, man and woman, Adam and Eve, were joined together in marriage and they were commanded to have a family, to multiply.

[9:08] And the next generation was to do the same, to join in marriage and that was to continue and continue and continue. And this is why family is what we call a creation ordinance.

[9:22] We use that phrase creation ordinance to describe things that have been established from the very beginning by God. Family is one of these creation ordinances.

[9:32] Work is another one. In the Garden of Eden, Adam had to work and the Sabbath is another one. It was established from the very beginning. But at the very start, a creation ordinance was family.

[9:47] And it's really interesting that after sin came into the world, everything, as we know, was affected by sin. Many, many problems emerged.

[9:57] But God began to act in order to restore the situation. And when God began to act, when God began to initiate his saving purpose, when he entered into the covenant of grace, as we call it, he did it with a family.

[10:20] He came to Abraham and through Abraham and his descendants, through that family, God was working out his saving purposes.

[10:31] And from that family came the nation of Israel. And even that nation itself was organized in terms of family. In the Old Testament, you had the 12 tribes of Israel.

[10:42] And that was the structure whereby their society functioned. And if you look back into the Old Testament and read a book like the book of Ruth, you'll see that there were many, many obligations that family members had towards one another.

[10:58] One lesson that is clear through the whole Bible is that family matters to God. This raises a number of important points.

[11:12] But one of the most important things that this raises and that I really want us to make sure we grasp is that our relationship with God is not an individualistic thing.

[11:25] We live in a society that is very, very individualistic. People think about my rights. People think about my views. People think about my beliefs.

[11:37] People think about my goals. And even in terms of our social lives, we talk about me time or my time.

[11:49] We live in a world that is very individualistically minded. God is not individualistic. Yes, we all have to have a personal faith.

[12:02] We won't be saved because of our wife's faith or because of our husband's faith or because of our parents' faith. We must have our own personal faith. But that personal faith makes us part of a collective people.

[12:16] It makes us part of a family. And so our relationship with God is something that should affect us as a group. That's why we meet as a group in terms of our church services each week.

[12:28] But it's also something that should affect the group that is our own family and our own homes. God wants our faith to affect our families.

[12:39] And you see that emphasis running right through the Bible. Children were to be taught Deuteronomy 6.5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.

[12:52] Jesus tells us that's the most important commandment. And then it says these words that I command you today shall be on your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your children. So we have to take them on our heart.

[13:04] We have to teach them to our children. If you look at the Old Testament you see that there were many, many feasts and festivals that were to take place each week.

[13:15] Why did they have these festivals? What was the purpose of them? Well, one of the purposes is revealed in Exodus 12.25. It says, When you come into the land that the Lord will give you as he promised you, you shall keep this service.

[13:29] This is referring to Passover. And when your children say to you, What do you mean by this service? Why are you doing the Passover? You shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover.

[13:41] For he passed over the houses of the people of Israel and Egypt when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses. One of the main functions of these feasts and festivals was to instruct and teach children.

[13:57] The sign of the covenant was also to be put on children. Genesis 17, God says, This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you.

[14:10] Every male among you shall be circumcised. That was the sign of the covenant. And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

[14:20] He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Circumcised every male throughout your generations. The sign of the covenant was to be put on children.

[14:33] And God makes it very clear that he wants parents to raise children who are going to love and serve God. We go back again to Malachi chapter 2 at verse 15.

[14:44] Did he not make them one with a portion of the Spirit in their unions? Speaking about marriages. And what was the one God seeking godly offspring? God brings together people in marriage and he wants godly offspring.

[15:00] And even when you come to the New Testament you see that one of the key qualifications for being an elder or a deacon is that you have to be a good father. 1 Timothy 3.4 He must manage his own household well with all dignity keeping his children submissive.

[15:17] For if someone does not know how to manage his own household how will he care for God's church? No one can be a minister if they're a bad father.

[15:30] Family is incredibly important to God. But not only that families are an essential part of a well functioning society.

[15:45] When God ordained this wonderful structure of family life he did it not just for his own glory but he also did it for our good. We must always remember that in terms of God's commandments.

[15:58] He doesn't simply just give us these commands because they're what he wants. God also gives us his commands because they are the best thing for us.

[16:08] In God's eyes a father's heart must be towards his children. And the reason and the reason for that is because huge problems arise when a father's heart is not towards their children.

[16:29] If families are a God ordained structure for our societies then we should not be surprised that problems arise when we abandon God's way of doing things.

[16:46] And one of the reasons why John needs to turn the hearts of fathers towards their children is because of the numerous problems that arise when a father's heart is not towards their child.

[17:01] Now we can look at the world around us today and we can see that this is true. If you look at society and some of the key problems that we face many of these are because fathers' hearts are not towards their children.

[17:27] If you look at the social problems that we are facing in our country we see many women who struggle on their own to raise a family.

[17:40] Maybe in very poor and difficult conditions maybe on a housing scheme or something like that people women who have been left and abandoned because a father's heart is not towards their child.

[17:55] Many women have the pain and trauma of an unexpected or an unintended pregnancy because a man's heart was not towards his child.

[18:09] Many women have been left heartbroken and many families have been left devastated because the father has left or has been unfaithful and his heart is not towards their children.

[18:23] And some children maybe have grown up with insecurity because their own father was uninterested and his heart was not towards them.

[18:34] Now, when I say all these things, I am not in any way trying to have a go at the men here. And in so many ways, whenever we think about anything like this, those of us who are fathers will just be conscious of our own failings.

[18:49] And we have to also bear in mind that sometimes the problems that we've been referring to are not the father's fault. Sometimes broken families are not because of the man.

[19:01] But I want to use these examples to emphasise the point that our own world is backing up what Gabriel is saying. That it is incredibly important for a father's heart to be towards his children.

[19:20] And God keeps telling us this. He keeps emphasising throughout the Bible how important the family unit is. But it is something that the world keeps on getting wrong.

[19:34] If we think for a minute or two about history, if you go back to the period when John was born, this was a time where the world was very much influenced by Greece and by Rome.

[19:46] And that culture was one that was full of irresponsible behaviour in terms of immorality in family life and in the conduct of men and women.

[20:03] And even 1 Corinthians emphasises that that infiltrated the church. Paul writes to them, it's actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans.

[20:18] And even back in Malachi's time there was a huge problem in that culture where immorality was rife and the family unit was being undermined.

[20:34] John was born into that world, a world that was full of immorality and he came into that world to turn the hearts of the fathers towards their children.

[20:48] and the amazing thing is that his message and the message of Christianity that grew from the ministry of John the Baptist and all the others who helped establish the New Testament church brought with it a family commitment that we might take for granted today but were it not for the Bible's influence we would not have it.

[21:12] For example it's Christianity that shows us that a wee girl is just as important as a wee boy. Even still today in parts of the world baby girls are abandoned because a boy is seen as a better option.

[21:33] The Bible has shown the world that that is wrong. Christianity has given mothers security because like in the time of Malachi and John the Baptist a mother could be picked up or put down at any point.

[21:47] they could be divorced easily and if a husband was fed up even with something simple like the cooking he could divorce his wife.

[21:58] Christianity gave a mother security because she could no longer be bought or sold or thrown away at the drop of a hat. Christianity made the wife equal to the husband because they are both made in the image of God.

[22:14] Even today we still have parts of the world where women have to keep ten or so paces behind their husband where they can be bought where they can be sold. The Bible shows us that that is wrong.

[22:26] And Christianity also shows us that the headship of a home if the father is the husband is the head of a home that means being a servant. It means being devoted to his wife.

[22:38] It means loving her as Christ himself loved the church. And so when you look back at history Christianity changed the world.

[22:50] It changed the world for the better. And a huge reason that it did that was because it transformed families. It made families the unit that they are meant to be.

[23:00] It changed the status of women. It changed the status of children. And it made one generation care for the next. It brought us so many of the precious structures that we have in our culture today.

[23:15] That's why it's such a tragedy that in so many ways as a nation we want to go back to the way things were. It seems that many people want to think individually, individualistically.

[23:30] They want to think of themselves and their own desires. And we live in a world where people expect intimacy but don't want to offer any security.

[23:41] where our hearts are towards ourselves and where our children are all too often an inconvenience. The message that John was going to proclaim is a message that we desperately need today.

[23:58] We need fathers whose hearts are turned towards their children. parents are so there are obviously key lessons here for us as a society but there are also spiritual implications for us as well.

[24:26] Gabriel's words give us lessons for our own families, reminding us that we as families, we have parents must make sure that our hearts are towards our children.

[24:38] And it's very interesting to notice that here the initiative lies with the parents. If we want our children's hearts to be towards us, then we must make sure that our hearts are towards them.

[24:55] We must take the initiative. But it also reminds us that if our own family is broken, then God wants to bring healing.

[25:06] The wonderful thing about John's message is that it was not a preventative message, it was a restorative message. It was for restoring the situation.

[25:17] And those families that are broken, those homes that are hurting, God is the great healer. And that may take a long, long time. And it may be a hard road, but God is the one who wants to bring restoration.

[25:35] But there are also lessons for us as a church. Because as a church, our heart must be towards our children. Our heart must be towards those who are coming after us.

[25:46] And it's always essential that we remember as a church that we are always only one generation from nothing. We are always only one generation from nothing.

[25:59] You can look at parts of Scotland where 30 years ago the church, the free church, was strong. You look at places like Mull, places like Arran, where 30 years ago they had four, five, six free church congregations on these islands.

[26:18] Now they have one. And it's very small. and what we have to realize is that Lewis is not immune from that. We have all so much strength in many, many ways.

[26:33] But in 40 years time we could have nothing. We could have nothing unless a generation that comes after us is raised up.

[26:46] And we must be very careful that we don't think individualistically as a generation. We mustn't think to ourselves, oh well we must let the next generation just find their own way.

[26:56] I'm not going to impose my views, I'm not going to force them, I'm not going to lay my views upon them. I will let them find their own way. We mustn't think like that.

[27:07] Because, for example, if there was an outbreak of a disease here, a serious disease, and we knew the cure, we wouldn't say to our children, oh well we'll let them find it for themselves. We would tell them.

[27:20] And so we must make sure that we think the same way with the gospel. But of course that doesn't mean that we force it down our children's throats. Gabriel says that a father's heart should be towards his child.

[27:35] And the emphasis on the heart is one of loving devotion. From the depths of our hearts we must tell our children that Jesus loves them and that we want them to follow him.

[27:48] And so that applies to us as parents, it applies to us as a church. We must bring the gospel to the next generation. But more than anything else, this verse teaches us an essential lesson about God.

[28:04] Because it reminds us that God's heart is towards sinners. The whole reason that we have this verse, the whole reason that we have John the Baptist, the whole reason that we have the Bible, is because God's heart is towards sinners.

[28:26] God's heart is towards sinners so much that he came himself to be our saviour. You think about how precious family is to God.

[28:37] You think of how much value God's places on the relationship between a father and the child. God sent his own son, his own child, because his heart is towards us, a sinner.

[28:57] And that emphasises an incredibly important point. That if you are not a Christian, God's heart is towards you.

[29:14] God's heart is towards you today. God's desire is for you to come into his family, for you to put your faith in Jesus Christ.

[29:28] That's why it's so important for us always to remember that as we gather here in a church today, and we have to ask the question, who's the most important person in this church?

[29:39] church? Is it Myrdo? Because he's the minister? Is it me? Because I'm preaching? Is it the elders?

[29:51] Who's the most important person in this church? Well, I would say that the most important person in this church is the person who's not yet a Christian.

[30:03] God is longing to save. You are the one who we are trying to reach.

[30:17] You are the one who we long to see coming to faith and following Jesus. You are the one who desperately needs to be saved.

[30:30] God's heart is towards you. And all you have to do is give him your heart.

[30:45] All you have to do is say, yes, Lord, I want to be yours. And he will welcome you into his family. He will take you and hold you forever.

[31:00] God's heart is towards you, but it's your heart towards him. May God grant that we would all give him our hearts today.

[31:12] Let us pray. Lord, our God, we thank you for the words that we've been thinking about today.

[31:23] We acknowledge how much good your word has brought to our society and to our nation. So many things that we take for granted would not be there were it not for the influence that your word has had.

[31:41] We thank you for that so much. But we ask and pray, Lord, that above all else, that you would draw us all to trust in you and to look to you and to give you our hearts.

[31:55] We thank you that your heart is towards us so much that you gave your own son to be our savior. And we pray, Lord, that our hearts would not be hard, but that we would open our hearts to you, that we would give you our hearts, and that we would live for you all the days of our lives.

[32:15] Please bless us and keep us now. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, as you know, today is a baptism service and it's a very, very precious thing for us to come and to gather together in order to baptize little Daniel.

[32:42] And much of what we've been saying today has been reminding us of the importance of the family unit in God's sight. that reminds you and it reminds me that your own family is incredibly precious in the sight of God.

[33:00] Your relationship with your husband or with your wife or with your parents or with your children is incredibly important to God. And even if you don't have children, you're still part of a family and your family is incredibly precious to God.

[33:22] And of course that means that we have to take good care of these things and in particular we have to take very good care of our children. And the best thing that we can ever do for our children is to bring them up as one of the Lords, to bring them up as part of God's church, to bring them up as part of God's family.

[33:46] And that's why we are baptizing Daniel today. when we baptize Daniel we're not making him a Christian. Baptism isn't something that automatically makes you a Christian and that's not what we are saying as we baptize Daniel today.

[34:03] But as we do baptize him we are doing so to show that he is part of a believing family and he is part of the church which he has been born into.

[34:16] And so today his baptism is a sign and a seal of the faith that we as a church and that Murdo and Alison as believing parents look for and long for in we Daniel as he grows each day.

[34:34] And like all parents here we know that Murdo and Alison will do anything for the good of their children and we all know that the one thing we will do anything for is for our children.

[34:47] but the best thing that can ever happen to our children is that they would grow to hold and to trust in Jesus Christ for themselves and that they would go on to proclaim the gospel.

[35:05] As we've been saying God loves families and so Daniel today has been given the sign of his family's faith and we are saying that he belongs in that great family of faith that is the church of Christ.

[35:24] And all of this reminds us that in God's sight there is something very very special about the relationship between parents and children. It's a very very special and very important relationship in the sight of God.

[35:41] And it's very interesting when you think about parents and children because when you think of a wee child when they are born they are completely helpless. A baby is born in complete dependence on their parents.

[35:59] In every single way a parent is superior. They have more knowledge they have more strength power, they have more resources, they have more abilities.

[36:13] In every way a parent is superior. But with that superiority comes a huge responsibility. And so the parents use this superiority to help their child.

[36:33] All the superior resources they have are used for the benefit of their wee baby. They use their resources to teach the child. They use their strength to protect the child.

[36:45] They use everything that they have to provide for their child. So you've got this wonderful situation where on the one hand a parent is completely superior and yet they are giving everything for their child.

[37:04] In other words, a parent's love is constantly self-sacrificing. A parent's love is constantly self-sacrificing.

[37:17] You sacrifice your time, you sacrifice your money, you sacrifice your energies, you sacrifice your sleep all for the good of the child.

[37:30] And that's why a parent's love is so precious because although the parent is totally superior, yet the parent is totally self-sacrificing. They give everything for the good of their child.

[37:46] And that's the way all parents desire to be and that's the way I know Myrdo and Allison are with all of their boys and how they will be with Daniel.

[37:59] But that self-sacrificing love of a parent reminds us of how God has acted towards us in Jesus Christ.

[38:10] Because we stand before God as those who are totally inferior and he is completely superior. But yet just like a parent God uses his superiority, his resources, his strength for our benefit.

[38:30] God loves us with a self-sacrificing love. That's what Paul talks about in Galatians 2.20. I've been crucified with Christ.

[38:41] It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

[38:55] So when we see a parent loving their child and giving everything to care for that child, it's a reminder of the love that God has shown to us in giving his son.

[39:11] God loves you with a self-sacrificing love. God has given his greatest resource so that you might be saved.

[39:25] And that's the amazing message of the gospel. The fact that God sent his son for your salvation and for my salvation.

[39:35] And that's the message that we are proclaiming today. And we proclaim that message because that is what Jesus has asked us to do. And in proclaiming that message along with the proclamation Jesus has also asked us to baptize.

[39:50] And we read a warrant for this sacrament in the gospel of Matthew chapter 28. And I'll read the last five verses of that chapter. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

[40:05] And when they saw him they worshipped him but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

[40:28] And behold I am with you always to the end of the age. Let us sing now to God's praise from the Scottish Psalter version of Psalm 119.

[40:47] Psalm 119 from verse 129. That's the 17th part on page 411.

[41:04] Psalm 119 from verse 29. Thy statutes Lord are wonderful. my soul them keeps with care. The entrance of thy words give light. Makes wise who simple are.

[41:17] We'll sing verses 129 to verse 133. We'll stand to sing to God's praise. lên chanting Simon church my heart my changed gaunt Arbeit wise balloons max saiyon Lae mahmm taiyon großavi начинаем 과 sansור sympathetic laanci passages my I open it upon the earth's feet.

[42:15] I love the life of my friends. I love the sea.

[42:29] I love the sea.

[42:59] I love the sea. I love the sea. I love the sea.

[43:14] I love the sea. I love the sea. I love the sea.

[43:29] I love the sea. I love the sea. I love the sea.

[43:44] I love the sea. Here we go to the part of the service where we baptized Daniel and to begin I am going to ask Mordo, she answered four questions which form the virus that he aroused in a seeking as we baptized Daniel.

[44:11] So, Mordo, do you believe the Bible to be the word of God and the only rule of faith and love?

[44:23] Do you believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as revealed in the word of God? Do you profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and the only Savior of sinners?

[44:39] Do you promise in God's strength to bring up this child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and Christ?

[44:51] I'll ask the congregation to stand and we'll pray together. Lord and God, we are here because of what Jesus has done for us.

[45:09] Lord, we thank you so much for our Savior, the one who came alongside us and who was willing to taste death for us. Lord, we thank you so much for our Savior, the one who came alongside us and who was willing to taste death for us.

[45:29] Lord, we thank you so much for our Savior, the one who came alongside us and who was willing to taste death for us. And Lord, we thank you so much for our Savior, the one who came alongside us and who was willing to taste death for us.

[45:44] Lord, we thank you so much for our Savior. Lord, we thank you for our Savior, the one who came alongside us and who came alongside us and who came alongside us. Lord, we thank you so much, Lord, that we are able to gather here. We thank you for this family who is with us here today. We thank you for little Daniel, a precious life born into this world who you have gifted to Murdo and Allison.

[45:59] And as they commit to bring their child up as part of your family, we pray that you will be near to them and bless them.

[46:10] We thank you for them, Lord, and for every blessing that they are to each other, that they are to this church and that they are to us all. And so, as we gather here now to baptize Daniel, we pray, Lord, that your blessing will be upon us all, that you will draw us closer to yourself, and that we will know your nearness as we gather in this world.

[46:36] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Daniel, Murdo Campbell, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God.

[47:01] The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you peace.

[47:13] Bless you. Lord, that God, we pray for Daniel, that you will guard and keep him, that as he grows each day physically, that he will also grow spiritually.

[47:28] That he will grow to know you, to love you, to serve you, and to be a great servant of the Gospel in his life.

[47:39] Lord, we pray that you will bless the whole family. We pray for Madhava and Allison, and we thank you for them, for all that they do for you. And we pray that they will know your strength and your blessing upon them in their lives.

[47:52] That you will bless their lives, that you will bless their homes, and that you will bless them in their lives. And that you will be so near to them. We pray to you, Lord, for David and for Philly. And we thank you for them. And ask that you will guard and keep them.

[48:05] And that you will all grow closer to you as they grow each day. And we pray for all our children here. And we thank you for all the young ones that we see. And we pray that each one of the children here will know how precious they are in your sight.

[48:20] And we pray, Lord, that that is something that you will all know. That as we baptize Daniel today, that it will draw us all to look to Jesus, to trust in you, and to follow you.

[48:33] And so we commit each question here, Lord, to your care of you, asking that you will draw us all closer and closer to your precious Savior, Jesus Christ.

[48:45] We thank you so much for these things. We thank you that we are able to be here today. And we pray your great blessing upon each one of us. In Jesus' name. Amen.

[48:56] Please be seated. We'll bring ourselves to our close by singing to God's praise upon the sing-salm version of Psalm 103. Psalm 103 and we will sing from verse 12.

[49:21] Psalm 103 from verse 12 and we'll take 135. We'll sing from verse 12 and we'll sing from verse 12. As far as he sits from the west, so far his love has borne away, and many sins and pesterses, and all the guilt and honesty.

[49:35] Just as our father loves his child, so God loves those who fear his name. For he remembers we are just, and well he knows our people's name. We'll sing from verse 12 to the end of the psalm.

[49:48] We'll stand to sing for God's praise. As far as he sits from the west, so far his love has borne away, and many sins and trespasses, and all the guilt that's on us play.

[50:12] Just for the Father loves his child So for those who fear his name For he remembers we are God And well he knows our people frame And well he knows our people frame Each human life is like the grass And like a meadow far it grows Its place will never be recalled What's over if the tempest flows O everlasting is the south For those who fear him and their seed For those who keep his covenant

[51:16] And carefully his precepts heed And carefully his precepts heed God's kingly rule is over all In heaven he has set his throne O you his angels praise the Lord Strong ones by whom this will is done O praise the Lord you heavenly host His servants who perform his word His God his works throughout Israel And you my soul O praise the Lord And you my soul O praise the Lord Please be seated Just before we close I would like to

[52:20] On a personal note express my thanks to you all For your warm welcome And my thanks to Murdo and Alison For the privilege of being able to baptise We Daniel And on behalf of the congregation I want to present Daniel with this little Bible Which is really the most precious gift That the congregation could give you In that it contains God's word And all the teaching that God gives us About his love His mercy And his grace So it's a delight for me To present Daniel With this week On behalf of the church So we will stand To close with a benediction The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ The love of God And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit Be with you all Amen