Gateway Church's Podcast
Fathering Toward Eternity
We are in the midst of a series on family and marriage, and so I want to invite you to join me in the book of Malachad this morning and help you watch your Bibles, and we'll begin in Malachad chapter 4 this morning. If you'll go ahead and open your Bibles there. As we begin I want to read to you this is from the volunteer manual for Peace Corps volunteers who volunteer in the Amazon jungle. This is the actual wording from a page on the Peace Corps manual for those volunteers, and it's entitled "What to Do in Case You Are Attacked by Anaconda Snake." Now I want to remind you, as I read this, that the Anaconda Snake is the largest snake on earth. It will grow to 35 to 40 feet long, weighing 350 to 400 pounds, full grown. Okay? What to do in case you're attacked. Number one, if you're attacked by an Anaconda snake, do not run. The snake is faster than you are. Number two, lie flat on the ground, put your arms tight against your side and legs tight against one another. Number three, tuck in your chin. Number four, the snake will come and begin to nudge you and to climb over your body. Number five, do not panic. Number six, after the snake has examined you, it will begin to swallow you from the feet in first. Permit the snake to swallow your feet and ankles and do not panic. Number seven, the snake will now begin to suck your legs into its body. You must lie perfectly still, as this will take a long time. Number eight, when the snake has reached your knees, slowly and with as little movement as possible, reach down, take your knife and very gently slide it into the side of the snake's mouth between the edge of its mouth and your legs and suddenly rip upwards, severing the snake's head. Number nine, be sure and have your knife. Number ten, be sure your knife is sharp. You know, sometimes we need instructions. Sometimes we need more than a sheet of paper full of words and explanations. I have found from personal experience that life is better learned from a real life human being who loves me and who walks next to me. Maybe it was the most profound revelation to me in the very first ministry that I began up in the panhandle. It was an older community, it was an older church and in less than three years I probably did 40 funerals. It was one of those small town communities where if somebody's third cousin had ever visited your church on Easter, if they died, they were going to call you to come and do a funeral. One afternoon I'm in my office, I get a call, there was an older woman who had passed away to nursing home. She did not know the Lord, she did not go to church, but somewhere in her past, a family member had come to our church a couple of times and so I got the nod. And so as was my custom, I asked to meet with her family at the funeral home. She had two sisters, that was all the remaining family in her that was still alive. So I sat down with her sisters just trying to get a feel for what kind of service they wanted, but more than that trying to find out a little bit about who this woman was. And after 45 minutes with the two people on earth closest to her, the only thing that I could discern that her life was about was knitting and the Dallas Cowboys. Now I've got to tell you, I've never tried knitting. I'm sure if I did I would absolutely love it. I'd probably just give myself completely to it, it's probably one of those sports that people just love. My husband and Dallas Cowboys fan from the time I was a little boy and I was one of those faithful few, even through the dark years, they fired Tom Landry. I was there every Sunday watching on TV, but I got to tell you, it is an empty life. If after eighty some odd years, if all they can say about you is, you love knitting and the Dallas Cowboys. What do people learn real life? What do people learn how to live? You are all those begots in the Bible, all those genealogies that when you're reading the Bible through every year, you sort of skim, Abraham begot Isaac. Isaac begot Jacob and he saw, you know what begot really means? It means he gave life to. But more than just breathing in and out, you and I know where life really comes from don't we? We know that if life is just about breathing air, you haven't lived for much and yet there are a lot of people who live in this broken and damaged world and that's all the life that they really know. I want to talk to you a little bit this morning about, about fathering and I'm going to confess right up front, I'm not an expert father, I have three small children. I make lots of mistakes, hopefully my love for them covers over those. But I do want to tell you this morning that there is an expert father and he longs to father people through you. There's a great illustration of a flag God brings people together in Genesis 38. I don't want you to turn that, I just want to tell you this story in Genesis 38, there's an account of a Roman named Tamar. She's married to a man named Ur, Urdide. In the Old Testament history, there's a thing called a kinsman redeemer where if a man dies and there's no heir for his estate, his brother can come to his wife and make a son who will be the heir of all of his things. So Urdide without an heir, his brother Onan was the kinsman redeemer. Onan and Tamar have sexual relations. If you remember Genesis 38, when the moment came for the giving of his seed, he spilled his seed on the ground and God killed him for it. And the reason is this, that any time God brings people together for relationship, it is never simply for stimulation, it is always for the purpose of reproduction. You have a godly seed in you. Proverbs puts it this way, as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. You realize that God deposits the greatest levels of his power and his grace where there are godly relationships. And godly relationships always involve reproduction. God will never, never bring you into the life of another person simply for your pleasure. That by definition is searing. I want to tell you, there's a lot of churches that simply want to gather a crowd to stimulate them. But there's nothing of value that is really being reproduced in them, and it's not going to be long before somebody wakes up years down the line and they realize, you know, I've been down at that church for years now, raising my hands and dancing in the eyes and worshiping God, but I'm still broke, my marriage is erect, I'm still addicted to pornography. Everything is wrong with this picture. And one of the things that really attracts me to gateway is that gateway church is not about gathering people simply. Gateway church is about making disciples. You realize it's not that hard to gather lots of people. You realize that? It's not that hard. What is the call of God is not just to gather people. God calls us to build big people, not just big churches. That's the call of gateway. I want to visit with you a little bit this morning about what your place is in that. Now you may be wondering, why Malachal and Fathering, Malach chapter four, verses five and six. Now bear in mind, these are the closing verses, the last two verses of all the Old Testament. Here's what God says, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse, and upon the closing of those words, heaven was silent for a period of 400 years, not a peep out of heaven." And the very next time that God speaks, it's through the angel Gabriel to Zechariah. I want you to make a note of Luke 1, 13 to 17, where Gabriel comes and tells him, "Zechariah, your prayer has been heard, you're going to have a son, and here's going to be your son." And he begins to account, "Here are the things that your son will be about." And one of the things he says is the very same words for Malachal four, six. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children. It was a moment of revelation for me when I realized that there must be something of the priority of heaven, that in the preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus, hearts of the fathers are turned to the children, hearts of the children are turned to the fathers. So as I visit with you this morning about fathering, what I want you to hear is this. I'm not talking about fathering from a gender-specific standpoint, but I want to visit with you about something that single moms can do in the lives of their kids. Moms and dads together, this is your priority. If you're not married, you have no children, I want to tell you, you cannot give away what you've not first received. This is your priority as well. Malachal chapter one, six priorities of fathering. First priority is this, help them to hear God's voice. Look at Malachal one beginning in verse two, "I have loved you," says the Lord. Yet you say, "In what way have you loved us?" With what he saw Jacob's brother says to the Lord, "Yet Jacob I have loved, but Esau I've hated and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness." I will explain that to you in just a moment, but I want you to understand that the most constant message from heaven, whether it's the sweet voice of God or in a written scripture, is that God loves you, and he loves to tell you himself, this verse, Psalm 143 8 is the cry of my heart every morning when my eyes open, let the morning be a word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. And the most spiritually healthy people that I know are people who make a priority out of every day hearing that God loves them, and he'll tell you himself. And what I'm talking about is this, theologically, you know that it's true, it has to be because God's Word says it. And I want to tell you this morning, God is not just theologically obligated to love you, he really does, he really does, and here's why, because he chose to, it is not based on anything you have done or not done. Good news, in fact, Romans 8 says nothing and all of, nothing that's ever been created can separate you from the love of God. Now most people who feel distance from God believe that because of some sin in their past, they're penalized. I want to tell you something, not even sin can separate you from God's love for you. And that means that is good news. Love and hate, when you hear America talk about love and hate, these are covenant words. It wasn't that God was filled with a feeling of hate toward Esau, these are covenant words and here's what it means. God shows Jacob became Israel, he's his twin brother Esau, God shows that he would bless the entire world through Jacob and not through Esau. It was simply because of God's choosing and no other reason. 11 years ago, I spent the summer in Africa, five weeks of which was spent in the bush in Botswana. We went after noon I was with a missionary and we were walking around from village to village and we met a blind witch doctor, the most peculiar thing about this man, he looked right at you with his eyelids open and his eyeballs were milky white. And even though you weren't speaking everywhere you went, his eyes would just follow you. Nobody ever let him around, he never bumped in anything or tripped peculiar thing when you say that night I was laying in my head and I was just thinking about God why is it that this man is in Africa, a blind witch doctor, me I was born raised west Texas, raised by two godly people who love the Lord with all their heart. I was taken to church, I was taught to pray, why, why me, why, why are you here this morning? Why are we here, wealthy and make no mistake, the poorest one among us in terms of the world's economy is wealthy. Why us? It is not because you and I are greater trophies than anyone else, I'm not more intelligent than the blind witch doctor, I'm not morally superior to him in any way. And yet God chose by a sovereign act of divine will, he chose that I would be shown mercy to be raised here, it says nothing about him, but when God blesses and gives wealth, here's what he says, my heart goes out also to the blind witch doctor, Marcus, and I want you to take your wealth and I want you to tell him about Jesus, that's why you and I are not greater trophies than anybody else on earth, God have you loved us, I chose you when there were a few other billion people that I could have chosen to bless, we need to help him hear God's voice, secondly, we need to show them how to honor God, good luck out one verse six, a son honors his father and a servant, his master, if then I am the father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my reverence, says the word of host, to you priests who despise my name? A little bit later, Malachi will explain exactly how they're dishonoring God, they offer God barn and stolen and sick animals rather than their best, they didn't stop coming to church, they just were just going through the motions, and the verse say, God says, should you try that on your governor, see if it works, can you imagine being called to a meeting with George Bush in the Oval Office, does it off, can you imagine your boss calling you in once to visit with you about your job performance, you sort of stare at the wender and wonder, what am I going to do when I get out of here? He says, try that on your governor and see how that flies, you see, we bring our kids to church, but there is a line somewhere between coming and honoring. Revelation 3, 15 and 16 says, I know your works, but you're neither cold nor hot, I can wish you a cold or hot. So then because you're a weak roar and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. You realize, this is profound, God would rather you be cold than a new quorum, I can't tell you how many people in eight years of ministry have said, well, you know, I know I'm not the best Christian, but hey, at least I'm there on Sunday, what God says to that, don't bother, I'd rather you be cold than a new quorum and here's why, because cold says, there is no God, I'll reject that totally, Luke one says, yeah, I know there's a God, he's just not great enough for me to worship. I think one of the reasons that God was so upset that people were bringing blind and crippled and lame animals to offer him was because eventually the worshipper becomes spiritually blind and lame, crippled. God says, you can't handle what's coming in that condition. We've got to help people learn how to honor the Lord and third, we teach him how to reconcile broken relationships. If you read from Malachi 2, we're not going to take the time to read through this morning, but make a note of this, there are three levels of broken relationships in Malachi 2. Verse 10, he says, you broke and covenant with each other. In verse 13, he says, you broke and covenant with me. In verses 14 to 16, he says, you broke and covenant in your marriages. I want to tell you friends, do you know what hinders the coming of God's kingdom in your life? I believe the most. It's not demons. Demons do not have the power to stop the coming of God's kingdom. They have the power to hinder, they have the power to harass and deceive. I believe what primarily hinders the coming of God's kingdom in the lives of this people is broken relationships. And our lives often are extremely broken relationships, and we're sort of like, well, I can just avoid them, we'll see them again, and I really don't have to worry about it. Romans 12, 18 says, if it's possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. And I think what Paul was saying there is this. I realize that there's going to be some people with whom try as you will, you can't make things right because of them. But I want you to bear in mind more than that, the words of Jesus in Matthew 5, 23 and 24, he says, therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and they'll remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way, first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Here's what Jesus is saying, friends, do not assume that you are right with God if you are not right with your brother. Those are strong words, the purpose is down in verse 15, Malachi 2, 15, because God seeks godly offspring. We need to teach our kids how to say, you know what, I'm sorry, that was my fault. Maybe a lot of us don't know how to do that yet. That's a godly thing to be able to confess, you know what, that was my fault, and I'm sorry. One of the reasons that Adam and Eve were such a target of Satan was not primarily just for Adam and Eve, but I believe Satan and his crafty, trueness realized if I can get Adam and Eve to break covenant with God, I believe I can get Cain to kill Abel. We need to be teaching our children how to reconcile relationships. When you testify to them of God's goodness, look at 2 17, there's two ways that people doubt the goodness of God. You've leered the Lord with your words, verse 17 says, you say, in what way we leered him and that you say, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delights in them or where is the God of justice. This is the way it plays out most often. People will say, if God is all loving and all powerful, then what is your explanation for all the evil in the world? Since there is all this evil in the world, then either God is not all loving or he's just not strong enough to stop it. It's a view of God that is primarily hard. He's a hard God and I believe most Christians feel the same way. Matthew 25, he tells a parable about a guy, God, the master entrusted one of his talents too, and he didn't do anything really, buried it in the ground, and when the master came back he said, why? He said, because I knew you were a hard man. You know what? There's people in the church who really see God as a hard God. He's the all-seeing eye. He knows everything we've ever done and he's really, frankly, quite ticked about it. And he's a big, powerful God who sort of has an edge and he just sort of stays mad most of the time. Listen, Psalm 139, 17 and 18 says, how precious also are your thoughts to me? This is what Brady was saying earlier. "Oh God, how great is with some of them, if I should count them, they would be more a number than the sand." Listen friends, God thinks about you a lot and his thoughts toward you, they're precious. And I think we need to be people who raise our kids to understand that God is not primarily a hard man God. God is primarily a very kind and loving God. And I personally, I don't want my kids getting the view of God that I got from church growing up. I can remember a season in my life when I really thought one sin and I'm out, confessing I'm back in, one sin and I'm back out, confessing I'm back in and it was back and forth and back and forth. And I want to tell you, it drove me nuts. I finally said, I'm not living that way. If that's God, then I'm just going to enjoy what I've got and I'll suffer through the rest of it when I'm dead. But I am not living that misery here. And finally, somebody shared with me, he got the wrong view of God. And five, let's prove to them the fullness of generosity, the fullness of generosity. Malachi three verse eight, when a man robbed God, yet you've robbed me, but you say, what way have we robbed you in tithes and offerings, you are cursed with a curse for you have robbed me, even this whole nation, we all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts. If I were not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it, I want to tell you, one of the reasons that people don't tithe is because they can't afford it. I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times. And the rationale is, deep down, now they've never said this, but deep down it's this, I'm trying to make myself wealthy. Proverbs 10, 22 says, the blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and here's a good part. He has no trouble to it. There are a lot of people wealthy and miserable. The blessing of the Lord makes one rich and he adds no trouble to it. This is one of the most giving churches that I've ever known of. And I want to just, while we're here, let me just say this, people don't learn how to handle money by osmosis. There are a zillion credit card companies out there trying to teach your kids how to handle money. And there are loads of people out there who walk into their first job with a mountain of debt that it takes them 10, 15, 20 years to plow their way out of, and it'd be a lot easier if we began to teach them from the beginning, here's sound financial management. It starts with the first check you write to God as a thanksgiving offering. But let me remind you of this, this is something that, quite frankly, Rex and I have struggled with them from the beginning of our marriage, that our tithe check, if it's the first check we write, becomes just another bill. We pay the tithe, we pay the mortgage, we pay the insurance, we pay the utilities with yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. The Bible calls your money a seed. When you plant a seed, water that seed. Friends, when you write a check to the church, God sees it as a seed. And I want to encourage you to teach your kids to pray, let their prayers follow their money, because your prayers water your seed, pray for Robert, pray for the elders, pray for the staff, pray for the church, pray for what God's doing here, let your prayers water your seed. And number six, display to them the joy of serving God. Look down at Malachi 3, beginning in verse 13, "Your words have been harsh against me," says the Lord. And yet you say, "What have we spoken against you?" We've said, "It is useless to serve God. What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts?" Let me tell you, we may not be so much saying, "It's useless to serve the Lord." But I want to tell you, I'll never forget, I was 14 years old, I was at my best friend's house, standing on his front porch, his father had a friend over, and these were the words of his father, a long time Christian, these were his words. You know, even if in the end Christianity turns out not to be true, it was still the best way to live. I've never heard anybody say that. I'm going to tell you something, that is not biblical faith. In fact, it goes against Scripture, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15, 14, "If it's not true, our faith is empty, we are liars and above all people on earth to be pitied." You know what it is? Even somebody says that, you know what that is? They've bought themselves a fire insurance policy. Because what they're saying is, "I'm looking out for number one, this was the best way to live, even if it's not true, but above all else, I'm looking out for me." And you will never walk into the joy of serving God with that kind of a mentality. I want to tell you, the greatest life to be found anywhere is in walking with God, and I'll learn that from my father. I will never forget watching my father sweat, helping other people, watching his hands wrinkle in the water of service, washing feet, and some of my earliest memories of my father. I was probably seven years old, got thirsty, woke up in the middle of the night, and I'm walking into the kitchen for drink of water. My father is on his face before the Lord, the middle of the night. And that's when this little boy realized, "If the man I most love on this earth thinks God is that great, maybe I ought to give my life to him." When serving God is a joyful thing, it's a joyful thing. I want you to stand up, and we're going to worship the Lord for a moment. I want to tell you that Ecclesiastes 3, 11 says that God has set eternity in the hearts of men. Here's what that means, that all of us have a desire for something of our own seed to live out past what we can see with our eyes. You realize every one of us saw this century begin, but if the Lord terries, not a single one of us in this room will see this century end, but God has set eternity in your heart. How are you going to leave a seed that will bless generations? Lord, we thank You. We thank You for this day, but Lord, more than that, we ask that You will help us to see ourselves not just at our place in history, but Lord, that You have called each one of us to a place in the kingdom, a kingdom that will know no end. Lord, what is our place in that? We ask for clear revelation of your heart, for Jesus's name.