Well, this year marks my first Father's Day without my earthly dad here on Earth.

And so what I want to do today is something very, very different.

I would normally preach a text from Scripture or I would preach on a topic, using God's word

to address different angles of that topic.

But today, I want to honor my earthly dad and hopefully point you to our heavenly dad

in a way that would build your faith and intimacy in him.

And so what I want to do is tell you some of the lessons that I actually learned from my

dad.

I need to warn you, they are not the traditional lessons that you would expect because

my dad was not at all the traditional guy in any sense of the term.

He was an incredible athlete.

He played minor league pro baseball and was drafted in the army.

Most people say he wouldn't admit it, but they all say he probably was on his way to

the majors most certainly incredible athlete.

And because of his love for baseball, everything in life was related to baseball.

I was a little kid and we did not have a swing set in the backyard.

We had a pictures mount and we had a home plate and I was pitching probably at the age

of three.

Everything was related to baseball.

He could relate anything at all.

Instead of asking me, hey, gross, he wouldn't say are you preaching this weekend?

He said are you on the mound?

...