Okay. Can you turn to a couple of passages in the New Testament?
Let’s start in Hebrews 11, beginning with verse 8:
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.
By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;
for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
And then in 1 John 2:13:
I am writing to you, fathers.
Father, we worship You this morning. You are Father, and our God, and our Savior. Lord, we are so grateful that You have made Yourself known to us.
And this morning we come to You, and we ask that You would speak to us, that we would hear Your voice in the Scriptures and through the things that are shared. Lord, this is what we are seeking. We are not seeking a teaching. We do not want that. We want You to speak to us, as if we were sitting here with You, because we are. We are here in Your presence.
You have made it possible. You have cleared the way that we can have fellowship with You. And Lord, we pray that You would fellowship with us through the Word, by the Spirit, in Jesus’ name this morning. Amen.
These things that I am sharing this morning have been on my heart for a long time. Who knows why God puts things on your heart? But they have been on my heart for a long time.
Maybe it is because I am getting old. You know, you get old and start, I think, to pay attention better. You are not thinking, “I need to have a good message.” You are more thinking, “Lord, what are You saying to me at this time?” Because I want to finish well.
This is not about finishing well, but it is about hearing what the Lord is saying. And I know He is saying to me—and I want to start with Hebrews—that fathers have to be understood in the context of the whole body.
There are no fathers without the body. Fathers are given to the body. Fathers are placed in the body for His purposes and for His desires. They are manifestations of who God is, and manifestations of who God is to the brethren.
In Hebrews 11, Abraham was in tents with Isaac and Jacob. That is the whole generation. And I know I have said before that a generation is not just, “It is my generation now, and my generation is moving out, and these guys’ generation is moving in, and the little generations are downstairs, and they are going to come in.” No, we are all one generation. We are all living in the same generation. God is speaking to this generation, to this time that we are living in.
It is important that we take things in context. When God is speaking, He is speaking to the whole body. He is not just singling out one group. The verse in John says, “I have written to you, fathers. I have written to you, young men.” The emphasis is on the you. “I have written to you.” He is speaking to the whole generation.
Let us not separate generations. Our brother Kumar gave an exhortation about a generation gap. There is no generation gap, so to speak. We are all living in the same time. We may see things differently because of our age and maturity with the Lord, but the speaking is to all of us.
As I am speaking this morning, I am not saying, “This is what you need to do to be fathers.” Because, you know something? You grow into being a father. That is what happens. You grow into it. The Lord leads you into being a father.
There are some of us in the congregation who might be seen as fathers. When I talk about fathers, I am not talking about a gift. I am talking about a function. We function as fathers to those who are younger.
I am not talking about giving instructions, but fathers supply something. Ephesians says that we are all joints of supply to one another. Well, fathers supply something, just as young men supply something and little children supply something to the whole body.
When we are looking at these things today, it is not saying, “Oh, he is talking about fathers, so as young people, I am going to text. I do not need to hear this.” No. Younger brothers and sisters, I think the Lord’s message to you is, “I want you to seek out the fathers I have put among you, because fathers have a function for you.”
And He is saying to the fathers, “Fathers, you have a function.” Not everybody is a father, but we all, in some way or another, are going to function as a father here and there. We need to realize that, and it is a serious thing.
It is not a position. It is not, “I am a father.” It is a function, and the whole body is supposed to be functioning.
It is a manifestation of the Scripture that says, “Your heavenly Father knows you have need of these things.” That is how fathers function. Fathers know you have need. That is the thing about fathers. Fathers are providers. They provide the family with the things they need.
It is not just, “I am head of the family; it is my word or the highway.” That is not it. It is being a provider and being aware of needs. You become aware.
When I was a teenager, you never even thought of being married. All you did was think of yourself: “What am I going to do? What is going to please me?” Then you get married, and all of a sudden you are aware, “It is not just me. Oh my God, I have got to think about somebody else.”
Then when you have kids—oh, man. I have told people before, “You want to know what a bondslave is? Have children.” You are a bondslave. It is not that the child owns you, but you are a slave out of love. You are aware of what is needed.
Not only that, you are moved to provide what fathers provide: stability, grace, direction, and guidance. That is what a father does besides just providing.
I remember, I did not get along well with my dad, but my older brother Mike did. He was a lost soul for a while, until he became a carpenter. My dad was a cabinetmaker, and when Mike became a carpenter, all of a sudden there was this relationship that bloomed.
I was jealous that I never had that, but my brother did. To see it blossom was a blessing to me. You can be envious of something, but to see it—and to see how my brother flourished because of it—was a wonderful thing.
Brothers and sisters, that is what the Lord has done in making a body. He has created a body that has fathers, young men, and little children, all for His own glory, so that He can show who He is.
It is not so that I can say, “This is my function, and this is what I am.” It is to show forth who the Lord is—to manifest God.
This morning, in looking at fathers, I want to consider four things before I conclude. Fathers function as examples in some things, and they function as sources in other things. You cannot pin it down into a box.
There is no functioning as a father apart from a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. There is none. You cannot simply say, “Okay, these are the things you need to do.” You cannot do it.
You do the things the Father does because you see the Father doing things. Is that not the life of the Lord Jesus? “I see My Father doing things, and that is what I do. I hear My Father saying things, and that is what I say.”
Apart from a living, current relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, there is no functioning as a father in life. You can do the things that a father does, but the life is not there.
Two of these functions are examples, and two are sources.
The first passage is 2 Timothy 1:5. Paul is writing his last letter to Timothy. It is not long after this letter that he is martyred. This is wonderful encouragement:
I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.
The New American Standard says “sincere faith,” but it is also translated “genuine faith” and “unfeigned faith.” What do they all have in common? It is real. There is nothing fake about it.
Now, you may say, “Jim, you are talking about fathers, but you have Eunice and Lois here. Those are not masculine names.” The Lord manifests Himself through women too, through sisters. It does not mean that sisters cannot function as fathers. In Christ, there is no difference in that sense.
The whole thing about Timothy is that he had an example of real faith. Sometimes we think faith is for special moments: “I am in trouble. How do You save?” Or we think faith is a one-time experience. We come to the Lord, and after that we do not exercise faith anymore; we follow the law.
But this is an example of real faith. What does that mean? What does that look like?
In the Lord’s Prayer, after the praise of the Lord, the first request is, “Give us this day our daily bread.” That is day-to-day faith. “Lord, I am looking to You to give me the things that I need for this day.”
I remember when Floyd took us up to Concord, when they were starting the fellowship there. He wanted us to experience the beginning of a ministry. There was a brother there whom we knew, and almost every problem that came up during the day, the first thing he did was pray.
He would stop right there and pray, asking for the very things needed in that situation. “Lord, as this is happening, will You do this? Will You do this?” That is everyday faith.
This is what has been most meaningful to me in thinking about it: it is a faith secured in this very thing—that I am in God’s hands. I am in God’s hands. No matter what happens around me, I am in God’s hands.
I can trust that whatever is happening around me has not happened apart from Him. Sharon Blanchard suggested that I read the biography of Biddy Chambers, and I did. Her daughter said of her, “All my life, my mother never, for half a second, questioned what God allowed to happen. She might be puzzled, but unperturbed and never desperate. She believed God was in the middle of the situation.”
That is a faith that stabilizes. From that hymn this morning, when it says, “He stayeth thee,” He keeps you from falling, from teetering off. He keeps you. He stays you—not for your own self, but so that you are not wavering away from Him. “I have got you. I have got you in My hands. I know you do not feel like I do, but I have got you.”
This is the faith David expressed in Psalm 23:
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
for Thou art with me.
This is the type of faith Timothy’s mother and grandmother had. This was the faith of the widow of Zarephath in 1 Kings 17. Elijah went to her during a famine. God had told Elijah that He had arranged for someone to take care of him, and there was this poor widow with only a little left.
She was going to make her last meal and die. Elijah asked, “Can you give me a piece first?” And in faith she did. The flour and oil did not disappear. It was not as if trucks suddenly came in with enough flour for the next seven years. No, it was a day-by-day thing.
This is the goodness of the Lord: day by day. “I do it day by day. I do not just go out and smooth everything out for you. But you can trust Me. You can trust Me.”
That is day-by-day faith. We can talk about George Müller of Bristol, Amy Carmichael, or Anthony Norris Groves. Those are good biographies to read if you want to read about faith. But we can look at them and say, “Well, these are great saints.”
So I want to tell you about someone you have never heard of. I know you have not heard of him. His name was Carl Herman. He was a little Belgian guy I met in Sydney, Australia.
After the Lord had really captured me while I was on tour, my roommate dragged me into Teen Challenge in Sydney. There was Carl Herman, this little Belgian guy. I was about twenty-three, and he was maybe twenty-eight or thirty-three—somewhere around there. He was very slight, coming up only about here on me.
He washed my feet—not literally—but, boy, I tell you, he washed my feet. He was such an encouragement to me. He was the head of that Teen Challenge house, and he was telling me about how things worked there.
He said, “You know, we are in need all the time.” He had a George Müller-type experience—not just once, and not necessarily often, but periodically. They would get to the table and say, “Lord, we do not have any food, but we thank You. We are grateful that You are our God.”
Then a bakery truck might pull up and say, “Hey, we have extra bread here. Do you want it? We will give it to Teen Challenge.” It was that type of faith.
That faith in him was shown to all the younger workers in Teen Challenge. They got to see a faith that encouraged them to trust God, believe God, and say that God is not only able to do these things, but He is willing to do them, and He does do them.
This is an example of faith, and it comes from those who have learned to trust. Lois and Eunice had learned to trust God in a daily way, and Timothy witnessed that. That is why Paul could say, “I see it in you too.” It was real faith.
Timothy was fathered into it—fathered into the experience, not merely the knowledge of it. There is a big difference. Those people at Teen Challenge were fathered into the experience of it as well.
Simple faith: the reality that God is a Father, and a caring Father at that.
Secondly, fathers are a source of encouragement. For that, turn to Acts 11:19-26:
So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone.
But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus.
And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.
The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch.
Then when he had come and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord;
for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord.
And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul;
and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it came about that for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
This is Barnabas. We know a lot about Barnabas, but Barnabas was not really his name. Did you know that? His name was Joseph.
Why did they call him Barnabas? Barnabas means “son of encouragement,” or “son of consolation.” They called him that because that was how he functioned. That was exactly how he functioned.
Encouragement is not coming alongside someone and saying, “There, there, there. You can do it. Attaboy. Come on, you can do it.” That is not the encouragement we are talking about.
Here is the thing about Barnabas as an encourager, and I think it is really important. When he went to Antioch, the apostles did not send him out to bring everybody under their rule. He went as a brother to see.
This is the thing about fathers: fathers are aware. Barnabas was aware of the grace of God in that place. He was aware that God was doing something in that congregation, among those people.
For us, we can bring it down to the individual. The Lord can make us aware of a younger brother or sister, and we can see the grace of God working in them. They may be struggling with sin or some problem, but the grace of God is there, ready to deliver.
Then the Lord shows you that, and you come alongside. “Son of encouragement”—the Greek word is paraklēsis, and from it we get Paraclete, the name used for the Holy Spirit: the One who comes alongside.
The whole thing about this encouragement is that, first of all, you are aware. You are aware of life—life being challenged, life being grown, life being held down. You are aware of that, and you come alongside.
It is a calling to one’s aid. The calling is not that the person or group is necessarily calling for your aid. It is the Lord, Who lives in you and with Whom you are in relationship, Who says, “Go alongside.”
Sometimes you are sent out, as Barnabas was sent out: “Go and check out what is happening.” But many times, brothers and sisters, it comes out of our relationship with the Lord, where we become aware of others around us.
That is the key to everything, is it not? We get so turned in on our own walk with God: “I have got to be this. I have got to be the overcomer. I have got to be whatever.” We get so turned in that we are trying to fix ourselves or make sure we have a good presentation for everybody, and we are not aware of anyone else.
The Lord is saying, “I am aware. If you could get out of yourself for a minute, I want to show you that I have work for you. I am not worried about who you are. I know who you are through and through, but My Son is in you, and they need Him.”
Your coming alongside is not going in with your great wisdom or great compassion. It is the life of the Lord Jesus that you bring with you. I think of Ed Miller. He is so precious. He would say, “I had to go to the emergency room. I guess the Lord Jesus needed to be there, because I am taking Jesus with me.”
That is the whole idea, brothers and sisters: we are taking Jesus with us. We are coming out of that relationship with Him.
Barnabas strengthened them in the way they were going. For some of us, Floyd Polices was like that. He would urge us on. He might say, “Here is a book. Why do you not read this?” Or, “Why do you not come with me to Concord?”
Whatever it was, it encouraged us to go on, so that our eyes would be opened more to the Lord Jesus. It was never about him. “I want you to see what the Lord is doing. I want you to see more of the Lord.”
Barnabas also took Mark under his wing. I want to say he discipled him. Oh, brothers and sisters, some of our young men need that discipling.
Now, those of us who are older know the bad things that came out of “discipleship” in certain days. Discipling does not mean lording it over someone. That is what it became. Even Derek Prince apologized and said it was wrong.
But it is guiding: coming alongside, walking alongside, and guiding. Mark messed up the first time when he went with Paul and Barnabas, but Barnabas still wanted to take him on the second journey. Is that not interesting?
Paul said, “No way,” and it caused a split between them. But Barnabas took Mark alongside. Through that, Mark saw a model of serving God.
It was not a teaching about serving God. There was not a conference about serving God. It was a taking alongside: “Come with me while I serve the Lord, and be my helper.” It was almost like an apprenticeship.
It was not merely, “He is going to teach me how to preach.” Barnabas taught Mark how to serve. I do not know if Mark ever preached anything. We know Paul said, “He is useful to me for service,” whatever that means. We know Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark, but we never hear about him preaching.
Serving is not always preaching. There are many things the Lord has us do that have nothing to do with standing up here. Most people say, “I want to serve the Lord,” and they think, “Well, I want to stand up there.”
Barnabas recognized in Mark that the Lord had a calling on his life. He recognized that, took him under his wing, and brought about what the Lord wanted. The Lord wanted a servant, and He got a servant. Is that not wonderful? But it took an older brother taking him under his wing.
Third, fathers are examples of living as they serve. Turn to 2 Timothy 3:10:
But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance.
The New American Standard says “conduct,” but I changed it because I am such a scholar. I prefer “manner of life.”
Manner of life is not merely, “I want to see your conduct.” The Muslims have done that. They have a book called the Sunnah, and Sunni Muslims are named after it. The Sunnah became a compilation of how Muhammad lived.
That is where the five pillars of faith come from: pray five times a day because Muhammad prayed five times a day; give alms because Muhammad gave alms; do not drink wine because Muhammad did not do those things. It becomes, “We are going to copy Muhammad.”
But you can copy Muhammad and not have the life of Muhammad. Do you see what I am talking about? You can ask, “What would Jesus do?” and still not have the life of Jesus doing it.
There is this manner of life. The word carries the idea of what led him, what guided him, what carried him into that way of life. It is really more like, “You know my spirit.”
Let me give an example from the Old Testament: Boaz. In Ruth 2 and Ruth 3, especially Ruth 2, you get a picture of Boaz’s life.
Boaz was a good Jew. He followed the Torah. He made sure that his servants did not go back and glean the field completely; he left it for others. He did all those things.
But it was not a grudging thing: “Oh, we have to do this. Just leave it.” His whole demeanor in Ruth 2 is one of life. In the way he lived toward his servants, he greeted them and ate with them.
He even instructed them, “Leave a little more. You do not have to do it all. Leave some of the big stuff.” Boaz was not merely a doer of the law.
Do you know what the law was really given for? It was not merely so that we would obey. It was a picture of God. This is what God is like.
Why did God tell them to leave something for poor people to gather? Because God loves them. Boaz was not into the letter of the law; he was into the Giver of the law. He could see, “This is what God is like. How wonderful it is. I want to be like God. I want to be generous because God is generous.”
That was a great witness to Boaz’s workers because they saw someone who knew the Lord and was joyful about it. It was not merely, “I am doing this command because this is what we do; we are serving the Lord.” No, it was the spirit behind it.
When you look at Paul and Timothy, here is another thing about fathers: sometimes you choose to be a father. Think about that.
Paul brought Timothy. Timothy did not come and say, “Can I follow you? Can I do it?” No, Paul said, “Come with me.” Is that not like Jesus: “Come, follow Me”?
Timothy’s experience with Paul was that when Paul was writing a letter, Timothy would see him pray. He would see the emotion, the love, and the hurt that came out of serving God’s people.
Timothy saw that Paul did not simply say, “I have had enough.” It was like Moses before the Lord. God was bringing Moses to say, “That is not Your heart, God. You know that is not Your heart.”
Paul could write about Timothy in Philippians 2:20:
For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.
His discipleship did not merely show Timothy that Paul was a minister who did certain things. The whole spirit of service, the whole heart of service, was revealed to him.
It comes from a father’s heart. This is the heart of our Father God, portrayed and manifested in Paul to the churches and to Timothy, to be reproduced and to bring about His will.
Timothy heard Paul’s prayers. He saw his care for the brethren. He saw how Paul labored as a tentmaker and as a teacher.
One of my finest memories of Floyd Polices is that Floyd opened his door to us. Floyd was a high school teacher. One summer, Jerry and I did his lawn and gardening. He would always say, “Come on in for coffee.” That was always great fellowship.
We got to know Floyd—not the preacher Floyd. We got to know Floyd.
I remember coming in one day, and there he was in his undershirt—one of those Godfather undershirts—because it was hot and he did not have air conditioning. He was making lesson plans for summer school.
For summer school! I could understand regular school, but for summer school? He said, “Guys, if you wait about fifteen minutes, I need to finish this plan.” He finished it up, and that night he was teaching the Bible study.
What did you see? You saw a man diligent in taking care of business for his students. You saw a man diligent in preparing for Bible study. You saw a man who opened his home so that young brothers could be encouraged and edified. Fathers. Fathers.
It was not merely the message he brought or the teaching he brought. It was the man.
I admit, I hated Paul as a Christian at first. I thought he was so arrogant in his letters—oh, so arrogant. But as I have gotten older and older and older, I marvel at him. I marvel that he could be who he was.
He could give place to Apollos in Corinth. He could say, “I planted, but Apollos is watering, and God is giving the growth.” He was not jealous of Apollos’ ministry.
There was no envy or jealousy like ministers sometimes have over their flocks. It was Christ. It was the church. It was the whole. Wonderful Paul.
The fourth thing is that fathers are a source of correction. I know many of us men know some of those sources of correction, or knew them. But not all correction is negative.
That is important for fathers to know. Fathers give correction, and correction can also be understood as training, as Hebrews 12 shows us, or as guidance.
Here is an example from Acts 18:24-28:
Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures.
This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John.
And he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace,
for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
There is a correcting in the way you look at the Scriptures. Is it not great to have teaching brothers? Chuck Smith took the Bible and explained it to us, and all of a sudden our ideas about God were changed. He tweaked us a little bit. “Oh, this really does apply to me.”
There is that type of correction. But there is another type of correction. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, before he gets into the love chapter, after speaking about gifts, “I show you a more excellent way.”
That makes me think of Margaret Barber and Watchman Nee. Margaret Barber had a tremendous ministry that was hidden from the world. She showed Watchman Nee a more excellent way.
If you read Watchman Nee’s biography or his books, he mentions Margaret Barber, either by name or simply as “a sister.” He said she had so much to give, and he challenged her: “Why are you not taking this to the city, where you would have a bigger audience? More people would see, and more people would benefit.”
She simply said, “I was called to this place. I was called here.” In other words, she was not out to become somebody. “I am called to this place, and because I am called to this way, God can do His work. Otherwise, if I go somewhere I am not called to be, it is all me, and there is no fruit in the lives of the people.”
That is the important thing about fathers: the fruit that comes out in the lives of these young men. And remember, young men can be young women. Something goes out, and something is germinated.
Look at the life of Watchman Nee and the influence of Margaret Barber. She influenced him in good ways, especially in showing him, “That is the flesh. You need to overcome that. That needs to go to the cross.” He had someone to guide him in that way.
In concluding, I want to look at the character of a father.
Do you ever wonder why God chose Mary to bear His Son? Why Mary? Was there something special about her? We can speculate. He knew how she would respond. There is foreknowledge in that.
But I think part of it was that He knew who she was betrothed to. Think about that. When God was thinking about this, He was looking for a good father for His Son.
We spiritualize so much, but God is practical. “Who is going to bring up My Son?” That was very important to Him. Joseph was not out of the equation.
I looked up painted pictures of the nativity because I was thinking of doing a PowerPoint, but I decided not to. In all of them, you have the Magi in the forefront, or Mary and the baby all lit up, and Joseph is always over to the side, in the shade. It is like, “Well, who is that guy?”
He is the father. He is father. Fathers are in the background of the lives of young men. That is a very important thing.
It has been said—and I think Stephen or Floyd said it—that disciples take on the characteristics of their fathers, or those who disciple them. That is pretty important.
The father does not need to be in the foreground. There are great pictures of fathers whose sons are in the foreground as champions, while their fathers are in the background. You know there has been an influence there.
But the father does not come to the forefront and say, “Yes, all my influence. He is a chip off the old block. He is everything that I am.” No, because he gives glory to God. “God has done a great work in this person. Oh, how wonderful it is.” That is Barnabas.
When we look at the character God sought in a father, Matthew 1:18-25 says:
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.
And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly.
But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”
And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife.
The New American Standard says Joseph was a “righteous man.” I like “upright” better. What does it mean that Joseph was upright? How do you become upright?
You become upright by walking with God. Joseph had some walk with God, just like Boaz. They did not have the New Testament. They did not have Christ within them, but they had the light they did have, and Joseph lived according to the light.
He lived according to light, and he passed that light on to his infant Son and to His Son as He grew up. There was light going out from God to Joseph and from Joseph to his Son. Do not think that did not happen.
We can have this idea that Jesus just came in and was so in tune with God that He did not need anything. It was not that way. God is so other than us—how could He even trust somebody? But He did, because He knew.
He took this man, and he was upright. He walked in the light that God had given him.
Joseph was not self-absorbed. He was concerned about Mary. “I do not want to see her put in the forefront and ridiculed. I want to do this secretly, so that she is not hurt by it.” Here was a man who was not out for himself.
Then he was a man who responded to what God showed him—obedience. Joseph arose from his sleep and did as the angel instructed him.
In Matthew 2:13, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Arise and take the Child and His mother, and flee to Egypt.” It says that Joseph arose and took the Child and His mother.
Then in Matthew 2:19, when Herod was dead, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and said, “Arise, take the Child back.” Joseph did not say, “But Lord, I have got a condo. It is all paid for.” He arose and went back.
When he found that Archelaus was ruling, the Lord led him to Galilee. Here was a man who, when he heard the Lord, did it.
This is the father God chose for His Son. This is the father God chooses for His assembly.
This is the very thing God is doing when He says, “I write to you, fathers. I write to you, fathers.” He is calling us to this type of life. He is not calling us merely to, “Well, you have got to do these things.” He is calling us to come into contact with Him.
God makes fathers. What did He say to Abraham? “I will make you a father of nations.” “I will make you a father.”
Brothers and sisters, in closing, let us say this: the Lord is so concerned for His body.
We talk about how the Lord is preparing, and He is preparing. Part of His preparation is making sure there are fathers. He is making sure there are fathers. There must be fathers because there must be young men, and there must be little children.
You cannot do without any of them. This is the whole body of Christ. God is concerned for His body, and He is concerned that we are walking with Him.
Everything comes out of our walk with Him—whether we are young men, young children, or fathers. It does not matter. What matters is that we are walking with Him.
This is God calling in these days, as they become more and more chaotic. Our salvation is not that God is going to intervene and bring in a new president, and all of a sudden everything is going to go back to normal. It is not going to happen. Excuse my French.
Things get more and more chaotic, but it drives us more and more to Him. It drives us to Him not merely to say, “Oh, protect me, protect me,” but to say, “Lord, help us to endure.”
“Give us that which we need to endure this time. Give us fathers who can prepare the way for these young men, who can succor little children.”
Abraham was with Isaac and Jacob, dwelling in tents. Do you know what that means? Dwelling in tents means they were not of this world. All of them: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—fathers, young men, little children. We are all in tents.
He wants us to realize that, and He wants us to walk in the way He has meant for us to walk. May He get what He wants.
Lord, we do pray, as we think about Your great love for Your body. Lord Jesus, the last thing You said to Peter was, “Feed My sheep. Tend My sheep.”
O Lord, here we are saying, “Lord, how do we tend?” Lord, we may have fallen short. Lord, we want to come back and give ourselves afresh to You, because we want to be upright. We want to be upright before You.
We want to live in the light You have given us. Lord, we want to live by that light. We want to have that light in us as life. Lord, we want to be those who hear You and do Your will.
Lord, this is our cry to You. Thank You that this is the very thing You want. Is it not wonderful, Lord, that You want the things that we want?
Oh, Lord, we bless You. Thank You. Thank You for caring for us and loving us the way You do. Please, may Your will be done. In Jesus’ name, amen.