Ask, Seek, Knock. | Knowing The Father | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Sean Thomas
Ask, Seek, Knock. | Knowing The Father | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Sean Thomas
Transcript
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Hey, everyone. Pastor Sean here, and I wanna thank you for subscribing to our podcast. I'm excited to get into today's message. And remember this, God is a good God. He loves you, and he wants to bless you.
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I want you to turn with me to Luke chapter 11.
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And I spent this week just in my in my personal prayer time with the Lord.
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Last week, we started talking about the prayer of agreement, and that there's three levels when we're talking about the prayer of agreement.
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And last week, talked about the first level as we understand that agreement first starts in unity.
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Now, given that the fact is a special day where we're honoring the fathers, I'm gonna put a pause on that prayer of agreement teaching, and I'll pick that up next week. Today, I want you to look at something as we still stay in the vein in the teaching of prayer.
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I I wanna identify something that I believe is is pertinent for everyone that's in the room, but I also believe specifically for the fathers today.
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It's important to understand this, is that when you go to God in your time of prayer, when you go to God in your time of need, God has different identities in the prayer room. Now, let me clarify something.
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What I'm about to share with you is not talking about the holy trinity.
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That's the bedrock of our Christian belief is that there's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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And, I'm not talking about that today, so I wanna draw a distinction between the two. I wanna talk about the identities and how you approach God in the prayer room. Luke 11 begins to give us a picture of this. And, I wanna talk you through this today, because I believe that as you begin to learn how to approach God in the in the three different identities.
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And so, if you're taking notes, you can just kinda make a little a little sub note there that there's three, three identities.
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And, if you'd like a title for today, it's pretty simple. I just titled today ask, seek, knock.
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Ask, seek, knock.
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Ask, seek, knock. In fact, if you can help me out this morning, I'd like for you to to speak that out. Just say ask, Ask.
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Seek. Knock.
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Knock. Help me out. Do it again. Ask. Ask. Seek. Knock.
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I like things in threes. One more time. Ask.
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Ask. Seek. Knock is so important when we're approaching God in our time of prayer. The Bible says this in in Luke 11. I'm gonna start in verse five, and I'm gonna read a handful of scriptures.
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And the bible says this, and he said to them, which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves.
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For a friend of mine has come to me in his on his journey, and I have nothing set before him.
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And he will answer from within and say, do not trouble me. The door is now shut.
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And my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you. I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, but yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
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Jesus goes on and he says this in verse nine. So I say to you, ask and it will be given seek and you will find knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds.
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And to him who knocks, it will be opened. Is anybody believing for some open doors?
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Come on. Anybody still declaring open heavens?
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Anybody wanna see that great and effective door that Paul talks about opened up to you because there is an assignment and a purpose upon your life? That God has called you to something greater.
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That regardless of where you are in the moment right now, regardless of what has tried to beat you down, that inside of you, God has got something great that He wants to pull on the outside of you. Because the first door to be opened up is the door of your heart that when I receive Jesus, and when I understand that He is also a door too, and I walk through His door, I know that there is purpose that is set before me. The Bible says in verse 11, if a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for fish, will he give him a serpent instead of fish?
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Verse 12. Or if he asks for an egg, he offer him a scorpion? If then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give you the holy spirit to those that ask him.
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Father, we thank you for this day. And again, Lord, we ask you over these next several moments as we lean into your scriptures, we lean into your word. Open up our hearts. Open up our ears that the way that we came today is not the way that we'll leave, that the measure that we receive is the measure that we'll have. So, father, open us up that we can receive your word with gladness and faith today.
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And, Lord, we give you the glory and the praise.
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Amen. The Bible tells us that there are three different actions in that passage that we read.
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The Bible says that we are to approach God, and we are to ask, seek, and knock.
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However though, in the passage, it tells us that there are different identities that is associated with each of those actions.
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We find out that in the action of knocking, we're approaching a friend.
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In the action of asking, we are now approaching our father.
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And I want to pencil in that the action of seeking is you seeking out a judge.
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The three identities in the prayer room is simply this. That you approach God as your judge, as your friend, and as your father.
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As your judge, as your friend, and as your father. See, oftentimes, because we don't know God's identity in the prayer room, we are approaching Him with things, and we're not getting the answer, or we're not getting the response or the outcome because we're approaching Him in the wrong way.
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But God has given us a beautiful blueprint understanding that when we know how to approach Him with the right identity, He'll respond based upon the way that we come to Him. Now, we always gotta come to Him in faith, and we've already talked about that.
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And we know that we need to come to Him with the right spirit, a praying spirit. We've already talked about that. We've already discussed the fact that when you go to God, you gotta know who you are.
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How many of are a child of God? How many of y'all believe that you're a child of God?
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And because you know who you are, you know what you have. What do you have? You've got rights.
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My children, because my son and daughter, they know that they're mine, they know that they've got rights in daddy's house.
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They know that they can come to me in their time of need, and they know that they can ask of whatever they want. Doesn't mean they always get it, but they can ask whatever they want. They're at that age right now where man, my threshold of how many things they ask in a day, it doesn't even exist.
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I mean, I just I'm I'm just Guys, pray for me.
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And y'all got toddlers, and they learned how to ask, and they don't stop asking.
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Dad, can I have cereal? Dad, can I have ice cream? Wait. Just it's breakfast. You just asked for cereal. What?
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Dad, can you put on this song? Dad, they know though because they're my children that they have a right to come and ask.
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K?
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I want you to put a little asterisk next to the word ask. I'm gonna come back to that in a few moments.
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You gotta know who you are as a child of God. What you have is rights, and you gotta know what God can do that according to your faith, that God will answer your prayers. Now, again, I've shared and taught on this earlier on in the series, but as a quick refresher, you gotta know who you are, what you have, and what God can do. So, when now you approach Him in the prayer room, you can approach Him according to the identity in the time of need.
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So what we understand is this is that God, one of His identities is judge.
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Is judge.
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The Bible tells us this that according to Psalm chapter seven, that he is a just judge.
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That he will judge the righteous accordingly.
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See a judge when it comes to God is not going us going in there and us worried about him condemning because it's not about a judge that is sentencing you to condemnation.
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But when you know that Jesus has laid his life down for you, and that you're the righteousness of God because the shedding of his blood, I can come to God with my petition. Because what do you seek a judge out? Normally, would seek a judge out when you've got a petition.
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You seek a judge out when you need reconciliation, when you need an answer in a matter. And so, go to a judge believing that that judge will rule in your favor.
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And when I know that I am in right standing with God, when I know that when I've given my life to Jesus, I've got a right to come before that judge with my petition, with my prayer, with my questions, with the things that I need a ruling in, and he will respond to me as a just judge. The Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 24 that Jesus is our mediator.
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He is the one that operates as your heavenly lawyer between us and God. The Bible tells us that it was Jesus' blood that spoke to better things than Abel. What that simply means is this, I feel the bloodlines anointing on me right now. When I come into the courtroom of heaven, my God is a just judge.
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Jesus is mediating on my behalf, and the blood has testified on my behalf as well. That when I came in and sinned, the blood says that you've been washed clean. So when I give my petition, God is gonna say, yes, I'm gonna rule in your favor. If you don't know God to be a just judge, then when you come to Him in your petitions, you're gonna hold Him from being able to respond to your situation.
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He is a just judge.
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Several months back, as I was spending time even preparing into our series that we taught on bloodlines, A lot of what began to get birthed in that season was my wife and I. We were going through a situation that we were really believing for breakthrough in a certain area for our life and and for the ministry.
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And so, earlier in the year, we took a couple days and and we went away. And we went to Georgia.
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And she said to me, hey, you know, there's this wonderful church up there. Let's just get a couple of days. Let's spend Valentine's Day. They've got these awesome really incredible, anointed, like revival worship times of ministry nights. And and, you know, let's just let's just get kind of renewed. We had just come off of the lengthy holiday season. We were into the New Year. We just needed a time to get kind of refreshed, and so we went away.
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And so while we were there, we went into this service on the Friday night, and man, everybody's worshiping, and people are weeping in their tears, and other people are laughing in joy, and God's moving. And I'm sitting there, and I'm like, God, I know I'm supposed to be refreshed right now. I know there's supposed to be time away, but I gotta tell you, I have not seen breakthrough in this area, and I'm getting frustrated.
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Now at the time, I was studying on the blood of Jesus. At the time, I was understanding that heaven had a courtroom. At the time, I was learning and growing in a lot of what we taught over the last several months.
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And so as I'm there and my eyes are just pinched as tight as I could, and I'm just I I started to come to God and I said, God, you've shown me in scripture that you're a just judge.
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God, I'm coming before you with this petition, with this situation.
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I need a ruling right now.
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I cannot wait any longer. I need there to be breakthrough and restoration in this area.
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And as we were in that service, and as my eyes were closed, and everybody's having their moments, I'm there getting violent in my faith. I just felt the presence of the Lord wash over me To the point where I have never felt this until this moment. I know of other people's stories, but I had never personally felt this. I felt literally like the wind of God enter in that I like almost like opened one eye and I was like, someone just turn the AC on me? What is this? Is there a fan blowing in my way? I mean, I'm faith filled right now, but at the same time, like this is wild. You know? And so, I felt this wind just come at me and I and I and I just kept my eyes closed, And it was within ten seconds that the Lord gave me this picture, this vision of heaven's courtroom.
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And I begin to to be in this place where I was making my petition and God was saying that because you came to me and because you knew I was a just judge, I am ruling in your favor. And I just saw a book in this vision close, and he said case is dismissed.
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No sooner than did I hear the Lord speak to my heart and say case is dismissed.
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I thought someone just like slapped me over the head, and I fell hard down onto the ground.
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And I, when I came up like ten minutes later, there was a, there was the minister or the pastor of the church that was walking around, and I thought, man, man, this guy must be walking up and slapping people over the head.
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I watched him. He was just going by people just gently touching them on the shoulder. Just gently touching them on the shoulder. Some days later when we came back, we went and we we watched part of the live stream from their Sunday service where they were giving testimonies of the weekend. And the pastor said something unusual happened this past weekend.
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He said as I was praying for people, very gently, he was like it felt like bolts of lightning were just being released.
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And he said to the point where God was powerfully touching individuals, and here I am looking at my phone, I'm like, that's me. That's me. You did. It was God touching me. Right? What it was is I had gone into the courtroom of heaven. I understood that there was a legal claim that was holding me from my breakthrough.
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I approached God as a just judge. I knew that the blood had testified on my behalf. I knew that Jesus went before me already as my mediator, and as a result, God responded according to the way that I came to Him. When you know your God is a just judge, it's not something for you to be afraid of. It's for a ruling on your behalf. It's for a ruling in your favor. And can I tell you within less than seven days, there was breaking in that situation and things changed in our life? God
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is a just judge.
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Judges, you have to seek after.
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Judges don't come to your house. Judges don't pick up the phone.
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You have to go and seek out the judge. So when he says ask, seek, knock, I'm seeking out the just judge.
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Now hang with me because the Bible says that we are to ask to seek to knock. So I seek a judge, but now when we're talking about a friend, I go to my friend and I knock on the door.
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We read that in Luke 11. The Bible said, who does not have a friend that you would go to him at midnight when you needed three loaves of bread because another friend happened to show up at midnight? I don't know what kind of friend is showing up at my door at midnight wanting three loaves of bread. But I'm a good friend, and I will go and grab it if I don't have it.
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And so, Jesus says, that friend might not like it. That friend might be frustrated that you knocked on his door, but nevertheless, out of your persistence will that friend not open the door and give you in your time of need. God says, I want you to understand that I'm your friend.
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And I really think that that's important for us in the room because many of us probably have never seen God as a friend. But the Bible tells us informatically, that we have true relationship in friendship with God. Jesus tells us in John 15 verse 15 is he says to his disciples, I no longer call you servants, but I call you friends.
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He says that a true friend, no greater love that has than this than one that would lay his life down for his friends. Come on. Has anybody got any real friends in the room? I'm talking about that like real ride or die friend that will lay their life down for you. That thick and thin, they're with you. That in the middle of the night, like what Jesus was talking about, you could call that friend. When you're in a place of discouragement or a place of frustration, that you can send them a text message. You can give them a phone call. They might not like it in the middle of the night. They might not appreciate the fact that you woke them up out of a dead sleep, but you know that you have a friend in that person and that they are with you.
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Come on. Anybody got a friend like that? Jesus
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says, wanna be that friend for you. I am that friend to you. I no longer call you servants, but friends. The Bible tells us according to Proverbs that there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
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There is a friend. Not all your friends are gonna know what it is to ride it out with you. And there's a difference between being friends to people and being friends with people.
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Be friendly to people, but there is very few that God has called you to run the race with. Those ones that really get you, those ones that can cry with you, those ones that can laugh with you, those ones that are not looking at your failure, but they encourage you to your future.
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That's the kind of friend that we have in Jesus.
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Listen, a real friend doesn't just get behind you, they stand beside you.
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And don't get me wrong, I want a friend that can be behind me for when I fall back.
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But a real friend is not just who's behind me, it's who is beside me. I don't want a friend that can just back me up. I want a friend that can lead me into breakthrough. You think of it like in the context of like a like a football team, like a defensive lineman that is willing to put up his body on the line so that and your wide receiver can run and have that path that's been carved out.
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Because that friend is trying to get you to the end zone. I'm talking about a real friend that we have in Jesus is your great defender.
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A real friend that you have in Jesus is the one who laid His life down for you that you could still be sitting here today and breathing life because God is for you and God is with you.
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He is the friend that sticks closer, closer, closer than a brother.
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The Bible tells us in Isaiah 41 that Abraham was a friend of God. Why was Abraham a friend? Because friendship requires trust.
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Friendship requires faith and trust. And anybody that's ever been a real friend in my life, it's always been rooted in the fact that I trust them and they trust me. God
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wants to be your friend. He wants to laugh with you. He wants to hang with you. He doesn't just want this cold transaction that you're just going to him with your Amazon wish list, but he wants to actually hang out with you. Because ready for this?
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For some of you, you might not like you, but God likes you. God loves you. God wants to hang out with you.
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God's just waiting for you to open up the door, and you let Him in just as much as you want Him to open up His door to let you in. I mean, this is the friendship that we have with God.
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It's that kind of Paul and Silas friendship.
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You all know the story of Paul and Silas?
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Paul and Silas, they were just on a missions trip. They were doing their thing. There was this girl that got wild because she was demon possessed, and Paul cast that demon out because because she was annoying him. And so then what happened was this girl was no longer good to make money for their for her masters and the owners of that business.
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And so what happened was that people came in and they arrested Paul and Silas. They whooped them sideways and they locked them up in a prison.
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Have you ever had that friend that, got you into a situation?
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You ever had that friend that you look at him and you're like, you know, if you hadn't have done this, we wouldn't have been here.
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But Paul and Silas, they didn't do that.
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Here's what I like about real friendship, true connection points of who God has joined you to. Paul and Silas didn't look at their problem.
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They chose to look at the potential of the moment.
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They didn't get disgusted and frustrated and overwhelmed because they were in pain from being beaten. They turned their pain into praise.
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I'm talking about a real friend that is willing to get you out of the pain and back into praise so that you can see that God is still with you. Like, that's Jesus.
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Jesus is saying, hey, I know you're going through it right now. I feel it. I'm with you on this thing. But at the same time, I'm gonna champion you into your next season.
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The Bible tells us that in Proverbs that there are friends that carry faithful wounds.
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Faithful are the wounds of a good friend.
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Faithful are the wounds where you can go back and you can say, man, I remember that moment when we went through this thing. But it reminds you that you got through that thing.
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Faithful are the wounds of a good friend, and there is nothing more faithful than the wounds of our Lord and Savior, for He was wounded for your transgressions, and He was bruised for your iniquities, and the chastisement of His peace was upon you, and by His stripes you are healed.
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Out of your friendship with God, you've got salvation, and you've got healing, and you've got deliverance because He is the friend that would lay His life down for you.
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So you can go and knock on His door in the middle of your trouble and know that He is with you.
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And so He says, ask, seek, knock. I'm gonna seek a judge.
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I'm gonna knock on a friend's door, but this is where I wanna just park this moment before you as we look at this last part here, is that when it comes to asking, you ask a father.
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You ask a father.
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God is your judge. He is your friend. He is your father.
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For the fathers in the room,
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I want to encourage you with this that there are three responsibilities for every father.
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Our responsibilities are to correct our children, to direct our children, and to provide for our children.
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Every father, hear this. Correct, direct, provide.
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Correct, direct, provide.
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A father resembles the good shepherd in Psalm 23.
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A father is one that will lead you and guide you.
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Not just when you're going by rivers of water, but also in the valley when it's hard. And they're not just in the valley when it's hard, but they always make sure that the table that's prepared, it's set, and it has everything that you need even when your enemies surround you.
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Fathers, they correct, they direct, they provide. The Bible tells us that a father, when it comes to correction, is that an open rebuke is better than a hidden love.
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Now correction is not control.
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And I wanna draw the distinction between the two because it's not about me controlling my kids when they get out of line, but it's about me bringing Godly correction in love and truth.
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That when they begin to drift outside of the lines not doing what they're supposed to, that I'm not just telling them get back, but I'm walking them through the steps as to why it's important to stay the path and to stay the course.
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And so that open rebuke sometimes, by the way for children, I don't care how young you are or how old you are, that open rebuke by the way, it might not feel good. It might sting.
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But when it's with the right heart, it's the intention that your father knows best.
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Fathers that they know best because when a father is willing to correct in love and in truth, and I'm gonna again, I'm gonna pull it around that. Fathers, are to correct in love and in truth based upon God's Word. Truth is what is the glue that holds all things together. If you take the truth of God's Word out of the house, it's gonna be really hard to bring correction. You're just gonna falter to control.
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But when I've got the correction and the truth of God's Word, it's what binds the family together.
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And I understand that today that there might be some in here that you don't have your father. Maybe you never had your father. I know that there's all different backgrounds and walks of life, but thank God we've got a heavenly father that you can go to.
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That when you don't know what the answer is, that you can go to Him and you can ask in your time of need.
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He is a good God. He is your heavenly Father. In fact, the Bible, it tells us this. Jesus says that when you come to God in prayer, it's interesting.
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He says when you pray, say our Father.
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He wants you to know before He's a judge, before He's a friend that He is your heavenly Father.
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And so He gives that instruction to our Father who is in heaven. Holy is your name and your kingdom come and your will be done. God wants you to know Him first and foremost as a Father.
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And fathers bring the loving correction in truth. They bring correction. They bring direction.
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Because truth always keeps me on the path that I'm supposed to go. Fathers, we got a responsibility.
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Hear me honest. We've got a responsibility to direct our children into purpose and destiny.
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We have a responsibility to spend time.
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What do you what what are you dreaming about? Every morning my wife and I will wake up. We say, so what did you dream last night? And sometimes it's real innocent and sweet. Sometimes it's completely off the wall. Like this morning, my daughter said, I dreamed that dolls were just raining all over me.
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It's cute. It's sweet.
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But here's the thing, if I can get them to continually talk about their dreams, then I can stir expectation.
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I can stir faith. I can stir them up into a future that God has for them because their steps, they are ordered of the Lord.
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And so when I am giving direction to my children, it's with the understanding that David said in Psalm 24.
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He says, God, in a time of prayer, God, show me your ways. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth. Show me. Teach me. Lead me because I know that you are the God that will lead me into righteousness.
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We have a responsibility to steward our children into the right things of God.
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Stewarding them into purpose. Stewarding them into being able to believe. I mean actually believe that whatever is in their heart, I don't care if your child comes to you and you say, hey, so do you wanna be when you grow up? And they say some crazy off the wall thing like, I wanna be a manager of Toys Us. That was my dream.
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I'm being honest with you. I said that to my children or my to my parents when I was a child. I was like, what do wanna be when you're up? I wanna be a manager of Toys R Us. Why? So I can play with toys all day long.
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Fan the flame, guys. Fan the flame.
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Fan the flame.
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Fan the flame. Let me let me put it like this.
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Is that if you never felt the freedom to dream, some of you would never stepped into where you are today. Maybe it didn't look like where you are today back twenty years ago, back thirty years ago, back forty years ago.
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But maybe there was someone in your life, a father or a father like figure that encouraged you to dare to dream. I When I was in grade school, man, I was a terrible student. I was awful. I like to day dream. Any daydreamers in the room? I mean, my mind would just float.
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My parents would get phone calls.
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Your son's a less than average student. I don't know if they said it quite like that, but they said we've got some problems here. And my dad would say, what's the issue? It just seems like he's staring off into space and he's dreaming all day long. And he said, so what? Let them dream. Let them dream.
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Let them dream.
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Let your children dream. Let them have vision and expectation for what could be.
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Stop trying to put limitations on what's possible, but open up expectations so they can dream about the impossible.
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We
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correct, we direct our children. Think of it like this. Jesus, every time there was a significant moment in ministry, what happened just prior to Him going out and while seeing, Him walking on water, or when we begin to see the loaves in the fish, or when we saw blind eyes open. It always came out of a time of prayer.
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With a judge, you cannot have intimacy. With a friend, you're limited to, but with a father, you get to have the intimate space with the one who loves you because the secret things are in the intimate time. For Jesus said, I only do and say what the father has shown me and led me to do.
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We're having this conversation earlier this week and we were talking about just some some wonderful moments with some of the sermons that we ministered. And Ken had brought up a couple years ago on Easter when we, begin to talk about Jesus in every book of the Bible.
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And, for those that was in in the service, that almost did not happen.
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I had a whole other separate message that we were getting ready that we ministered and that we preached, and it was part of it. I told our team, I said, I don't know. Because, I mean, to to list every book in the Bible and where Jesus is in that was something else.
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And so I remember I had spent the time just going through the word, preparing myself for it. And there was this moment in the service that I was going to close on this Easter Sunday.
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And I remember I happened to just look over and my dad was sitting on the front row.
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And when I looked over and I locked eyes with him, he just gave me a simple nod. Because he knew what was in my heart to minister.
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His head nod was all that I needed to say, alright.
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We go. Ministry guns out. Let's go. Fathers, sometimes the best way to direct your children is just simply giving them the head nod of encouragement.
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Reminding them, reminding your sons, reminding your daughters that, hey, you got this.
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Could you imagine Jesus coming out of those prayer moments? He was flesh just like us.
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He went through every temptation just like us. Why do you think he got alone with the father? I believe it's because our heavenly father was giving him the head nod.
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Go walk on water, son.
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Go open blind eyes.
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Go pray for deaf ears.
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Go heal the sick. Go minister. It was the head nod of assurance that you have got this. Fathers, we have to correct. We have to direct. But then that brings me to this right here.
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We gotta know what it is to provide.
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And provision, I've said this before, is not just what you put on the table. It's what's provided around the table.
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Many of us will think our careers is what's most important so that we can make enough money to give our family the things that we desire. But the reality is more than what's on the table is what's around the table.
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And it's important that we make sure that we are providing and caring and taking care of our families, but your first ministry is not what is flowing from your hand, but what is coming out of your heart. Because character and greatness is cultivated in what is around the table in the way that we are able out of the things that have gone on in our life, in our in our walks with the Lord. And by the way, the best thing that you can give your children is wisdom.
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My dad would always say this, I can't always tell you what to do, but I can tell you what not to do. Sometimes it's rolling up the sleeves to bear the scars of the hard moments that we've gone through, that when we are talking with our children and we're providing for them, we're showing them that, hey, we didn't get this right, but you know what? This is what we did wrong. Let's learn from it so that you don't walk the same path.
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For your ceiling becomes that next generation's floor.
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What you provide is in what is around the table. And when I'm going to God in the prayer room, I'm going to God seeking God. Man, where did I miss this? Can you give me truth to bring correction? God, I need you right now. I feel like I can't do this, and as a father, He encourages me. God, I need You to help provide in this situation, because I don't know how we're going to see this thing through.
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Provision, by the way, from God is not you getting everything that you want.
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Look at James chapter one verse 17.
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Put your eyes on this scripture.
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The bible says in James chapter one verse 17,
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that every good and perfect gift comes from above, from your Father, the Father of lights who does not cast a shifting shadow.
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Every good and every perfect gift, it comes from your Father.
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Now, good and perfect are interesting words because good is not talking about an emotional feeling about something you like.
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It's not saying, man, that chocolate ice cream tastes real good.
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The word good means productive.
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So, every gift that God gives His children is meant for you to be productive.
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When God put creation back in its place in Genesis chapter one, he after he created the sun and the stars, he looked at it and he said, it was good. Not that he just was delighted at the fact that the sun and the stars look good, as he said, you are productive.
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When he began to bring vegetation from the ground, he said, it is good. When he began to put the birds in the sky and the fish in the water, he said, it was good. He said, it was productive. It was for purpose.
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The gifts that God gives you is to be productive in your purpose.
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Can I go further? It's important to understand because some of you are saying, God, I need a new car, but you haven't learned how to build credit.
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Some of you want to have a platform, but you have not learned how to build your character.
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Some of you want to have a husband ladies, but you have not had healing of your heart from the last relationship.
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God's not going to give you a husband. He's not going to give you a car. He's not going to give you a platform. What He's going to give you is the tools necessary to develop you for that thing.
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A couple years ago, my dad, I got a lot of stories about my dad, so you better watch this later, bishop.
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I say that in humility.
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Couple years ago, my dad calls me up and he says, hey, son.
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Christmas is coming. What do you want for Christmas?
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I said, I don't know.
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I mean, I do know, but I'm at the age right now. I'm not gonna ask.
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I think you get to a point when, like, you're, like, a grown adult. You're married. You got kids. It's like there's just certain things like don't ask for that.
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So I was like, I don't know. I don't know. So Christmas came, and we get around the Christmas tree all as a family. And he says to me, he goes, no, listen. I asked you, and you told me nothing.
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So don't get upset for what you get for Christmas.
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So my nephews and niece, they're opening up.
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You know, yeah. Look at all this. I think my kids, they got a whole bunch of things.
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And, I I get this one gift, and I open it up.
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It was an electric screwdriver.
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In that moment, there was, like, a million other things I could have thought of that I would have rather had.
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I looked at my dad. I was like, thanks.
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He was like, don't thank me now.
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You can thank me later.
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Is there anything else with my name on it under the tree?
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A couple months went by.
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We had a handle on our door that broke, and I was angry as can be.
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I was so mad because I'm like, I don't know how to fix this stupid thing.
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This is ridiculous. And I and I little I legit thought, crap, that electric screwdriver.
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Sure enough, I pulled it out and I was like, man, it was just like the right perfect size fit, and I fixed that thing. And I like legit, I was like, dang, man. Like, dad was right about this thing.
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God's not always gonna give you what you want. He'll always give you what you need. Now here's why.
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Because he never wants your desire to derail your destiny.
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Amen. And if there's something that you desire so badly that potentially could compromise your destiny, he's not gonna give it to you. He'd rather build you up so that when it's time for you to step into that thing, you can steward it well, lest that blessing really is a blessing and not a burden.
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You hear what I'm saying?
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Because you'll get discouraged and you'll say, God, you didn't respond to my prayer. And God is saying, actually, I did.
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It wasn't the devil trying to sneak into that situation.
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Sometimes the best things in life is the hard roads that we travel, not because God's trying to make your life harder, but because He's trying to build you up. Anybody that is gonna build some muscle in the gym, it didn't come because it was easy.
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It came because you are willing to put the sweat equity into it so that you could build up something that will benefit you later. Come on. Tell me. That is not the truth. Amen. And so your heavenly father will give you a good gift, a productive gift. Your heavenly Father won't only just give you a good gift, but a complete gift.
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That's what the word perfect is. It's complete. What He gives you, He didn't say, oh, I think I should have given you a little bit more. Oh, I didn't add enough into that. What God gives you is everything that you need to be able to walk in the purposes of God, to be able to walk in the fullness of God. I'm telling you right now, if you say, well I don't have anything. If you've got breath, then you've got purpose.
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If you've got breath, you've got everything that you need to fulfill what God has placed inside of you. You've got everything that you need to tell that devil watch out. I've got a heavenly father that is watching over me. I know that I'm called to something greater. I know that I'm called to something more because my heavenly father is with me. The bible says this, is that the gifts that God give, they're irrevocable, which means what God gives, He's not looking to take away.
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Now, let me just drop the pin on this last thing right here. Luke 15. I'm gonna paraphrase. It's the story of the lost son.
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And the Bible tells us that there was a certain man that had two sons and the younger of the two sons came to his father and said, give me the livelihood that belongs to me.
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And so the father began to divide his livelihood amongst both sons, both younger and older.
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And the Bible says that not too long after that the younger son went on a journey and he began to spend and waste everything that he had with riotous living or prodigal living. He was wasteful with what the father had given him.
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He found himself in the point where there was a famine that came into the land and he joined himself.
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Listen to this. He joined himself to a citizen of that country.
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Why is it that when we mess up, instead of running back to our Father, we join ourselves with the world?
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And we find ourselves further and further and further away from our Heavenly Father, and closer and closer and closer to the world.
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When he joined himself to the citizen of that country, that citizen sent him out to feed the pigs the swine.
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To the point where this son was so hungry he was willing to eat what the pigs were eating.
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And you got to be careful because when you get so deep into the things of the world, you will find yourself willing to settle for what the world eats.
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But when you understand that you've got a good Father that you can come to Him and ask in your time of need.
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And He came to His senses and He said, how much better does my father's servants have it, these hired servants, and here I am willing to settle for what the pigs are eating.
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And He says, I'm going say to Him, I'm going to go home and I'm going to say to my father, father forgive me in heaven and on earth and I'm gonna repent.
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And the Bible says that as He began to go home that not too far off His, His Father was waiting.
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Your Father is waiting.
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He wasn't waiting to give him a hard time. He wasn't waiting to rebuke him. He wasn't waiting to get mad at him because your father is not looking over your shoulders to see what you're doing with the gifts he's given you.
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Some of us are afraid to come to God in a time of prayer because we're afraid that if we mismanage it, if we misuse it, that God is going to take it away.
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And that's not the nature of your heavenly Father.
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What He gives, He's not changing His mind. He doesn't shift the shadow like it says in James.
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He is certain that He gave it with the right reason in the right heart because He believes in you.
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Why is this so important especially on a day like today in Father's Day? It's because for some of us, our children have gone wayward and they left us, but I charge you as fathers, are you willing to wait for your children to come home?
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Maybe the wait has been long. Maybe you've been discouraged in your heart. Maybe you've been broken up over the fact that there has been a disconnection.
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But I'm telling you, as you come before your heavenly father, sons and daughters are coming home. I was praying about this last night. The Lord begin to show me children restored back to their families, back to their fathers, back to their mothers.
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But will you be the fathers that are willing to love them and embrace them as the father did in this parable?
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The Bible says that he went to the to, to his knees, to his feet, and he kissed his son. He loved his son. He welcomed him home. He wrapped his arms around him.
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He put a coat on him, a ring on his finger, and sandals on his feet, and he said, the son of mine that was lost has now been found.
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Maybe some of you have gone through a season that you've been lost.
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Maybe you've gone through a season that you've lost it all.
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But God is not worried about where you feel like you're lost. He is saying, I am here ready to receive you. You are found in me.
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Because the Father loves you and He's a good God.
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A loving God.
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And a God that cares.
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But here's the part of that entire story that this last week has had me going back through the entire text and combing and reading through it. And it's simply this, is that the father had two sons.
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One son was willing to ask the father.
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And though he lost it all, though he came home, and though he was restored, there was another son who was upset at what his younger brother did.
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To the point where when the father said, I'm going to throw a feast and kill the fatted calf and celebrate my son who is dead and is now alive. This other brother would not come home.
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But at a distance, he began to get frustrated. At a distance, he began to get angry. At a distance, when his father came to him, he said, how could you do this?
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And the Bible tells us this in the story that I think is so powerful.
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If you could just lean into this one moment right here.
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The older son is frustrated with his father, and his father says, all that I have had has always been yours.
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Why was he not walking in it?
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Because for this older brother, he didn't know that he could go to his father and ask.
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And I'm telling you, a prayed up life is when you know that God is your judge, he is your friend, and he is your father.
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And as a father, you can go to him and ask.
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I don't know what you have need of today.
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I don't know what area of your life is empty or void, but you can go to your father and ask.
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If it's joy today, he'll give you joy. If it's peace today, he'll give you peace.
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If you've gone through a season of discouragement, frustration,
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he'll give you strength.
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God loves you so very much.
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The greatest gift that he gave was his son.
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Our God is a gift giver. Yes, he corrects. Yes, he directs. But my goodness does our God provide.
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He provides a way out when we feel like we don't know which way to go.
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You can go to him and you can ask in your time of need.
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Father, I thank you, Lord, today. Thanks again for listening to today's podcast. We trust that it has touched your heart and blessed your life.
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Listen to support the ministry. You can go to our website, abundantlife.tv.
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And remember, we are better together.