Fathers Must Shine

has caught the bell father this morning i just thank you uh lord that we can gather around your name i can gather and we can gather together lord because of the price that you ultimately paid in the blood of jesus father i thank you with the statistics and the ratios and even across this room as a broad spectrum uh father of of people without fathers as we heard lee say people with abusive fathers even people right now that are becoming fathers themselves and lord i just pray that indirectly you would speak to every heart and mind in this room through the context of what i'm about to share lord we give you all the glory and the honor today lord right now i pray as we did this morning and have done all week for our friends in sydney and melbourne and lord across our country and the things that are going on across this planet lord you say if we come to you and we pray and we seek you that you will heal our land lord so we seek and we intervene and we continue on that journey of just pursuing you and your presence father i just pray right now for anyone that's walked into this room they've been dragged into this room been invited manipulated whatever the case may be that they would encounter your presence at some point lord that they would have a tangible experience of who you are that you are a real true living god in the same way that i did and so many other millions of people have in jesus name amen amen go ahead and take your seat good morning welcome to presents church if you are on the gold coast for father's day holidays we know you're not from down south uh so welcome for anyone who's come from up north um you good this morning how good was kids band jason george was the other bald guy apart from myself and my dad um and and gretchy uh that was up here and julie was over here you would might not have seen her but jason and julie have recently taken over uh kids church and uh that is a blessing for the house jason has a testimony yep jason has a testimony that'll blow your socks off if you think my testimony is powerful wait till you hear his and then to to put the two together and understand that he's now our kids church pastor he told me not to tell anyone but i just told you so i'll leave that up to him to share with you we're going to go to deuteronomy chapter 6 in just a few moments probably an unlikely place in the scripture that you would think we're going to go to in the context of father's day but as we've already shared across the floor of this room it's obvious that i want to speak to dads this morning in fact it's usually these days i will get past to chrissy to get up on a mother's day father's day because she's a great teacher so i've had to do some research i've had to pull some statistics this morning but i really do i want to speak to the dads i understand that there are probably young people in the room that will become fathers into the future this will speak to you there's also undoubtedly people in the room that are single mothers or you are single parents raising kids and i believe this will speak to you although i'm using the language father's day and i'm speaking to dads i want to speak to you under the title this morning that fathers must shine you repeat after me fathers must shine i to be honest with you was going to say a godly father must not die but then pastor ken said that's a little bit harsh on thursday so i said okay let's change it and let's bring the light theme in but the truth is fathers must shine and if we're putting it into a kingdom context godly fathers must shine there is a reality that jesus is coming one coming back one day and we believe that it's going to be soon and i don't want to go into the whole thought process around that but up until then we need to give the best influence we can how many of you know that the modern role of the manly hood or and masculinity if you will of being a father is under attack right now four of us said yes but most of us would know in this room over the course uh even looking at what has happened and rules that are changing uh within covert uh and with covert being used as a disguise some of the rules that are being changed that we're hearing about i sit on the district committee of the acc there are six or seven of us that meet once a month once every couple of months and we hear about the new laws that are being introduced by government and we oversee the churches of the gold coast in the context of pastorally caring and so we're hearing some crazy things so the statistics i'm about to read to you this morning uh they come from the barnes institute now you can look them up and probably find them in many different places but i want to bring an idea and then i actually want to unpack deuteronomy for a few moments that will help us maybe you're a young father like me three of my kids were on the stage and our baby was in the pram there and i'm still learning my wife pulled me up the other day we were sitting on this hammock that i was given for my birthday and my daughter came out and i said something to her and when she left chrissy repeated what i'd said to her in the way that i had come across not thinking that i came across that way which happens a lot because i have a deep voice and i think i'm sounding nicely but apparently i don't sound nicely so i've got to smile more as well my dad's like yeah i know what you mean um but the truth is and and i sat back and i thought about that and i thought wow as a father speaking to my daughter if she has interpreted what chrissy is just relayed that that was wrong information and she's gone away with this false image of what i'm trying to portray so it's so important that we be godly fathers this morning if i were to bring you some statistics the first one of what it is for kids to grow up in homes where they don't have fathers it would be that 63 of all u.s suicide come from fatherless homes now this is a broad spectrum ninety percent of all runaway children come from far less homes eighty-five percent of all children with behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes 71 of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes 75 of all adolescent chemical abuse patients in treatment or needing treatment come from either abusive or fatherless homes 85 of all used suicide in prison excuse me all youth in prison or in the prison correctional system up to the age of 18 come from fatherless homes now most of you are sitting there going we know your story pastor justin i'm probably the exception outside of that percentage i came from a godly home with four generations of pastors but i pretty much qualify as there was a point i was suicidal i didn't run away my dad kicked me out it's his fault had a few behavioral disorders dropped out of school in fact he pulled me out of school as well i used to ring up and pretend i was him because i had a really good accent and he caught me out uh uh chemical abuse was definitely a huge part of of my testimony and my story and space spent a little bit of time not as much as others behind bars but i need to say this this morning and want to remind you there is such a need and importance for not just a a godly father in the house but a mother and a father coming together holistically and again i know i'm speaking to people in this room you don't have a partner someone has passed away and forgive me i'm not trying to emphasize or make you feel bad i'm just bringing the facts here's a thought the mother and the father were always intended to be complementary in the way that neither could fashion on their own when a mother and father come together they are come they come together for the purpose to nurture just to reveal the heart to reveal the character and the intimacy of god i would take it even further to reveal the the intimacy the personality the character and the nature of the triune the father the son and the holy spirit and that's what godly parenting is meant to represent to the children in the world around us a mother's role it said is primarily and and i hope my wife's out of the room for this but it's primarily to bring intimacy care and to nurture looking through studied and again like i said to you i've gone through some facts when our kids mature they look to the father as they go into their teens as a role model for processing for decision making and for deciding the values that they'll have for the rest of their life once again i'm not implying that this won't happen if you were a single mother raising children but this is just what statistics have said for both sons and daughters in the absence of a father or a healthy role model the fact is based on the statistics that the potential for a disadvantage is there for young people being raised and the influence and the maturity and the project potential trajectory of their children i want to remind you again of the title this morning is fathers must shine i want to speak to every dad or dad to be in this room i want you to get in in your heart this morning as a as i've got it in my heart over the last eight years or nine years of marriage we celebrated last week we've got four children under the age of well eight and and under and i see the value now and the way they repeat the things that we say and as the video is said the things that we do how important it is that we reflect uh the right values i want to say this as well i believe that there are people that are unsaved that have a lack of faith that do an amazing job of raising kids morally so i'm not just speaking outside of that but if we're coming around the biblical context to see another generation who were jesus lovers followers of god that would see a outside generation coming to salvation it is so important that we influence in a godly manner are you with me fathers must shine if we were to look at the statistics around church attendance or the spiritual effects of what it is to grow up under a father promise keepers in a baptist press combined with another uh a christian society in america i believe in the uk actually they put their resources together and they found spiritually if a father doesn't go to church but just the mother does one in 50 children will become regular worshipers of jesus if you do the ratio on that or look it up the best you could find is that 18 of the children will go on to live a life as followers of jesus once again if you're a single mom sitting in here today i i know that there are single moms it's because you believe in the miracle working power of jesus and you believe and probably understand and i love this this this thing we've quoted many times as jesus is talking and he's leading us in this discussion and teaching us how to pray he teaches us he says when you pray pray like this my father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come i will be done we all understand that i love when shane willard was here a couple of years ago he unpacked that in the original meaning and the original language and i love the beginning part it's my father who is closer than the air that i breathe so if we're thinking about god who is closer than the air that we breathe as a single parent or as someone who is trying to raise children then something we should do if we don't have a fatherly role model in the house and this is just a thought that the holy spirit dropped as i was praying before is we should stay close to the gospels because jesus said i came to do the work of my father and when his disciples they said well we don't understand about god he said if you've seen me you've seen the father in other words when we see the lifestyle and the characteristics of jesus we can see the representation of what the father is portraying to our community so as a mom as a single parent or someone who's trying to raise kids and you're like how do i get this this this influence we'll look at the gospel and relay what jesus would do wwjd what would jesus do he is closer than the air that we breathe if you were to carry on these statistics when a father attends church alone it said that 65 of kids if a father comes to church and the mother stays home 65 of your kids will go on to be worshipers of jesus when both the mother and the father return excuse me regularly at 10 together 75 of your children will go on to become regular worshipers of jesus i think we'd all agree with probably my original title past again i think was better a father's role must not die a father's role must not die her father's role must not die in fact godly fathers must shine if you're going to open your bibles if you haven't already the scriptures will come up behind me in deuteronomy chapter 6 there is this there is this this this amazing really all of deuteronomy is the fifth book of the torah moses is writing it's interesting because when god met with moses uh one of the first things he said was god i'm not confident in speaking for myself and i don't have the correct excuse me english and pronunciation i tried to leave this morning i usually leave without eating anything i just have a banana and get out but my kids made me pancakes all morning i've been like trying to wash these pancakes down and trying to preach while you've drunk in like 10 liters of water to wash down pancakes and i'm like on the sugar eye which is why i'm shaking so so there's the reason if you're thinking why does he sound different today it's the pancakes don't eat them glad i did that extra rowing session yesterday amen and and and so here's the thought and in if you were to go back in scripture and look at the end half of deuteronomy chapter 5 really from verse 22 through you would hear about this phenomenal experience that happened probably the only time ever in history these guys are only just a few months out from arriving and joshua taking over leed and then crossing over into the promised land and at this particular point in history there is this dialogue that takes place where god basically speaking through fire again i don't have the scripture right here for the sake of time to read so i'm going to paraphrase but god speaks moses is in between the people and he speaks through fire uh one translation says and god starts to speak to the community there's about two million people that hear the audible voice of god for the first and probably the only time that we know of in history it gets to a point where the people hear the voice of god they receive his instructions and then they they kind of take moses aside and they say obviously god hears everything they're like moses like everything god said was good and and we're going to abide by it but please never let him speak to us again because the fear of the lord came upon them because of the fire of god as the scripture describes that that that they were in a place of wow we don't know if we will live if we ever hear that voice again but remember moses had been going up on top of the mountain he'd been meeting with god on one he said god show me your glory there was something about the dynamic of moses relationship with god that every one of us can have if we draw near to him the bible says in james as he will draw near to us but the point is they say to him moses what you go and talk to god and then you come back and tell him what he wants us to do and in verse 29 it's interesting because the scripture says this of deuteronomy chapter 5 oh that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and to keep all my commandments always so that it might go well with them and their children forever in other words god has said i've heard what you're saying moses i've heard what the people have said and i trust their hearts remember this is another generation we need to remember that all the people that came out of slavery had slavery mindsets so they're now being promised an inheritance they're being promised all this fruitful land they're being promised all of this the the the this new life but yet they have a mindset and a culture that does and a character i guess that doesn't understand how to grab a hold of it hence the reason they're asking god and god is saying hey i need to give these guys a bit of an education how to live when they come in to the promised land just a few months later joshua reiterates what moses had said to the people and joshua and we've been speaking about this in our series of being a pacesetter in verse 7 of joshua chapter 1 he says be strong and very courageous god's speaking to joshua be careful to obey all the law my servants moses gave you and do not turn from the right to the left that you may be may obey and be successful wherever you go keep the book of the law on your lips meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it then you will prosper and be successful see we have to understand one joshua was a leader but more importantly joshua was representing the father joshua was the one that would go away and spend time with the father so when joshua came back joshua was the one that was giving instruction on how israel was to lead their lives when they crossed over into the promised land and not just how they crossed over into the promised land how they would go into battles in the promised land how they would take and divvy up the inheritance how they would treat people who stepped out of line and i want to say this as i'm about to read deuteronomy chapter six we need to understand when we're reading in the context of deuteronomy especially we have to use wisdom grace and come with an understanding of the blood of jesus i think because otherwise as fathers what can happen is we can read this and we can go away and be heavy-handed with our children we can almost be like you've got to do this you've got to do this which will actually push your kids further away from the things of god than draw them closer to the things of god so deuteronomy chapter 6 moses has gone away and he spent some time with god remember all the men the leaders they're saying moses you bring us some instruction and we'll go away and we'll we'll raise our children we'll we'll teach our children's children he goes away and he comes back and he says this these are the commands decrees and the laws the lord your god directed me to teach you and to observe in the land that you were crossing into the jordan to possess need to highlight that possess so that you and your children and your children's children after them may fear the lord your god as long as you live by keeping all the decrees and the commands that i will give you and so that you may enjoy a long life another key point here and be excuse me here israel and be careful and obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in the land flowing with milk and honey just as the lord the god of your ancestors promised you here o israel the lord your god the lord is one love the lord your god with all of your heart with all of your soul and with all of your strength i need to remind someone it's not just with all of your heart he's saying with all of your soul you're saying with all of your strength there's three different charac categories there we don't have time to go into today maybe you can in your small groups these commandments that i give you today and to be with you on your hearts and press them on your children talk about them when you sit at home when you walk along the road when you lie down and when you get up tie them with cymbals on your hands and bind them to your foreheads could be kind of awkward but write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates just looking at the scripture i'm going to unpack four points but before just so the host team or the av team know i just want to bring three thoughts reading this this morning three things stood out to me when god was speaking to moses to the community and this was an instruction for how they were to live their lives so that it would portray and shine a light on the generation under them the first thing he said i'm giving you a land that you're crossing over in the jordan that you will possess remember for 400 years israel had not possessed anything they'd possessed slavery there even got to a point where they had the very thing that made their job easy which was the straw taken away from them when god got involved and we know pharaoh came in and all that stuff happened but what god is saying to them is i'm about to give you something that you're going to possess when we receive salvation we possess and we've been grafted and we've been adopted in into the kingdom of god so we possess the inheritance that comes directly from the line of jesus i want to remind some people that are you aware of that are you shining that light are you portraying that to your kids that we are more than conquerors in your house do they know that that nothing can defeat you that you are the head and not the tail that that anything that comes against you it will not prosper is that the portrayal because that's what god is saying he's saying i'm not just this isn't just a short-term thing where you're going to fall back into slavery obviously in the context of the law which moses is bringing there are conditions like if you keep walking in line with god this is the promise that is going to come the second thing that stands out to me possess it's not meant to be short term he says there he says if you do all these things i will you will enjoy a long life i was thinking about this i'm thinking we all want a long life but in the context of living in the fallen world yes we're saved by grace our spirit our soul is saved but but naturally things just happen to our human bodies i was thinking about this but if you go back and read he says here he says i will give you a land to possess so that your children and your children's children after them may fear the lord your god so in other words what he's not actually saying is hey you're going to have like a really long life and live like 800 years but if you live like this the light that you shine on the generation under you will carry that and then they're going to carry that to the next generation and then they're going to carry that to the next generation so in other words it may not still be the stephanie family name it may change to nansen it may change to something else it may change to something else but the reflection of what i reflect to my children and the way that they reflect it to their children will cause what would seemingly be figuratively speaking or metaphorically speaking me having a long life because even my great great great great grandbabies are living away that i taught them to [Applause] you know it's funny i looked over it pastor john my dad this morning and i was up in my office praying and got a bit of time so i can talk about this and and he gave me a hug and i said happy father's day and then i looked down and he's like no sure i said where'd you get your shirt and like so i asked my friend josh camp easy the other day i'm like you get big clothes but they're long and he he said go to big and tall it turns out that's when my dad shops as well so if i were to roll my sleeves up now and tuck my shirt and you would see my dad and i have maybe that's something like i'm carrying on with his long life certainly the balding is a part of the generation of we will all live that i'm praying that hunter i'm vicariously giving hunter mullets and side parts and lines in his hair because i'm like i just want him to have the coolest hair probably the only difference would be probably the physique the abs and probably the tattooed arms i'm just joking but i just needed to lighten the atmosphere a little bit but he says if you obey me there will be long life in reference to the genealogy that will come from you if you shine a kingdom-godly light and reflection not even just of deuteronomy of the gospels of jesus and live the way that jesus taught us to live then it will transfer on to the next generation the next generation the next generation you know i had diane david who has just finished serving kids church this is your first week off kids church come on we need to give diane david a round of applause [Applause] diane came to me and we've been praying and looking she said pastor i really don't want to do it but god has told me i'm to be the to serving kids and i was like thank you lord because i know she will always turn up she's always faithful she's reliable and she knows how to have fun with the kids and and and i was going somewhere with this but i've forgotten the third thought the third i'll remember diane welcome back to church big church the what it's the pancake i know i keep telling this is where now i know why my dad has a problem he's american he's too many pancakes it's no i know now i know uh conversations go astray the the last thought as before i get into my actual points we've got a few minutes i know many getting hungry we're talking about pancakes but he says he says hero israel and be careful and obey so that it may go well with you obey so that it may go well with you i wrote here just before he can put you in a place of the promised land he can give you all the blessings that you have but if we make stupid decisions we can't blame god we were chained lord said the other day hey god can bless you financially but if you make silly unwise decisions that aren't centered around asking god and not just asking god listening to what god's advice is don't turn around and blame him an old phrase i read just recently of john maxwell in reference to the context of this scripture and referring really to moses which i believe translates to us as fathers an old phrase says that the leader's job is to keep the main thing the main thing as fathers women to keep the main thing the main thing as spiritual fathers we're meant to keep the main thing the main thing moses attempts to do this in the scripture as we were just reading and reminded and he reminded the israel that their existence result revolves around a loving god just remind everyone we wouldn't be here if we didn't have a loving god we wouldn't be saved by grace through faith living successful victorious lives not just waiting for a day of eternity to go to heaven we would be living like heaven on earth now it's all because we have a loving god he also tells family leaders moses i'm speaking about how to transfer truth to their children so i want to give you four thoughts and then we're done this morning on how to transfer truth looking at this scripture the first thought that i have for you this morning is relationship comes before rules like i'm all for rules especially between getting home from work and my kids falling asleep which is like all night if you didn't pick up what i'm saying but but relationship really does come before rules if we were to take jesus example and go back to where we were luke chapter 18 and luke chapter 19 last week bartimaeus was blind and he was sitting on the side of the road he was a beggar he was dirty the christians the church the people figuratively speaking that we're pursuing jesus we've all heard this a couple of times i hope we're getting it they were all pursuing jesus but in their pursuit of jesus they they overstepped barnabas and he cried out son of david have mercy on me and they said be quiet because they were trying to pursue jesus but then he cried out again and we know that jesus stopped and we know that jesus went to him and he healed him he threw off the garment the the qualification that allowed him to beg literally legally but in that picture it tells us that and i want to get this right i wrote it down i've been processing this all week acceptance precedes change so bartimaeus hadn't yet said the sinner's prayer bartimaeus hadn't done anything except for heard that there was this man jesus and he was potentially the messiah he was yahweh he was the son of god the one that we've heard about and and thinking about barnabas even in this moment i feel like holy spirit's reminding us that bartimaeus's vision may have been gone but what i know about vision impaired people which is very little they are excellent with the things that they hear so he would have heard all the rumors around town about this jesus the the religious festival they were going from the old city to the new city of jericho and he'd heard that this jesus this jesus that was the healer was there and he called out to jesus remember jesus accepted him before he ever changed his life and the bible then says as it transfers into uh luke chapter 19. the first story that we hear there is he's walking along the side of the road the scripture and again i'm paraphrasing implies that he's about to arrive at another location where they're going to celebrate and and and there is this little short dude and he climbs up the tree and his name is zacchaeus because the crowd was so thick and he wanted to see jesus one translation as we heard last week says that he wanted to see zacchaeus excuse me zacchaeus wanted to see jesus before he passed by remember the emphasis last week there are zacchaeuses in our world that are looking at us hoping that they will see something about this god seeing something that will give them faith seeing something that will give them hope if there was ever a time in history apart from world war one and world war ii right now the world is looking for a reason and a tangible encounter with god so that they can believe that they can put trust and they can put hope because on every channel you look you can five find five arguments for something we all know what i'm talking about five arguments against something but here's the deal jesus looks up and he sees zacchaeus one translation if you break down the translation it says that he stopped and looked at zacchaeus up the tree and he discerned zacchaeus it's like really cool mood music he he discerned zacchaeus so it wasn't like he just stopped and he's like oh short dude up a tree he's up there because he wants to meet me it's getting more intense we've got to talk louder he's about to do the dance i thought chrissy had set me up i'm dying i'm dying to tell you the story i've got on her but i'm waiting for the appropriate sermon and i don't want to ruin father's day for me we'll see if it comes out we're running out of time but anyway zacchaeus is up the tree and and jesus stops the bible says that he discerns in other words jesus saw that there was something about the heart of the man that put the extra effort in to climb up the tree to pursue him i just want to remind people this is even part of the sermon this morning but i want to remind people there are people that are looking for you that know that you are a christian that know you go to church they've heard that you say you read your bible and that you will pray for them they are looking for you right now to be the jesus represent the jesus i don't know who i'm speaking to but you need to open your eyes we all need to open our eyes as the church but relationship comes before rules acceptance precedes change exactly what we see throughout the gospel before anyone essentially even knew who jesus was jesus would approach him like the samaritan woman at the well he approached while he was sitting down and she approached him but he began the contact which culturally was actually unacceptable but what it tells us is that jesus accepted her before she ever changed and because he accepted her not only did she change but her whole village changed which gave him an invitation to stay and preach in the region of the samaritan village and preach and change the culture and the dynamics and bring heaven on earth relationship comes before rules have gotten a little bit off track have you ever watched someone tell off someone else's kids they kind of look at you like who the heck are you like half your kids do that to me when i tell them to get off the top of the hexagon playground downstairs i'm just saying i'm like hey get off there like i walk down the stairs hunter will see me or catch me out of the corner of my eye macy will catch me in honor and they like jump off because they know daddy's coming then i'll get there and there'll be another kid i'm like hey can you please like climb off and they just look at me who do you think you are bald man wearing your dad's shirt but seriously if you have a relationship with someone it's so much easier in verse 5 of the scripture it says love the lord your god with all your heart with all your strength with all your soul this is what moses relayed back to the community it was one of the first things he said hero israel the lord our god the lord is one he says love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength again three different areas that he's telling us to love god here's something i've learned really recently over the last few years it's a gold nugget for fathers fathering begins with intimacy and investing in the relationship with your kids from day one if i'm being perfectly honest my journey of going through transformations was one part of dying to self and restoration and transformation then bible college cleaning the church and then getting married was a whole other level and we were only married eight and a half months like hunter came early we didn't do what some of you are thinking right now so like so for like four weeks we got to hang out as like husband and wife and then we found out there was a baby coming and it was all about the baby but but but then when hunter came i was like no well let's just stick with one because when you have a child it's not like you're just getting a gift which we thought it was for eight and a half months like a new rugby car a ball a new car a new something it's actually something that god is giving you to steward to shine a light into and to treasure and and for about a year i was like babe like like again it's another level of dying of self to fatherhood and then chrissy would probably get up here and say some different things but i feel like over the course of having macy who's now six and honor who is now three and a half going on 21 and now having baby jesse like the time that i get to spend with jesse whether i'm sitting on the couch or something going on or whether i'm just around like like i just see that from day one it's important that we're intimate with him relationship it comes before rules it's the same with god as it is with us the second thought that i have for you i know time's going i've got to keep moving truth must be in you before it can be in them in verse 6 this is what the scripture says these commandments that i give to you today there to be on your hearts it's got to be a conviction it's got to be more than just turn up at church it's got to be more than just a thought process during the week or a preparation of the outfit you're going to wear on a saturday night conviction is something that you carry on your heart it's something that you say it's something that you live it's the utmost important thing to you when you have a conviction about something especially in the context of loving the god who saved your life and transformed your life then as i say here the truth that's in you will then be translated on to them ephesians 5 16 most of you will know an amplified virgin says therefore see that you walk carefully live a life with honor purpose and courage shining excuse me shunning those who tolerate evil and enable evil as they the unwise but excuse me not as unwise but as the wise sensible intelligent discerning people make the very most of your time on earth recognize taking advantage of each opportunity and using it with wisdom and diligence because the days are filled with evil like i'm not bragging but i'm just figuratively speaking if i were to look percentage-wise of my life when i'm in my house chrissy would definitely verify this that probably 70 of the time that i'm in my house if i'm in my living room apart from the lions playing the bulldogs someone else playing someone else last night it was like bipolar it was like do i watch the afl do i watch the rugby league do i watch but i'm in all seriousness seventy percent of the time there'll be uh like youtube worship on our tv so my kids are exposed to an atmosphere and a lifestyle of worship like literally that song that you just heard which is why i was going to diane before let me tell you about it my son does that that that dance and he does another one i'm not going to do the dance and but but but but he does that diane's like hunter's like just brought this dance and like we he just we can't get away from this song which is a planet shaker song because they have a vision that they're going to reach and touch the next generation and my eight-year-old walks around the house going let me tell you about them let me tell you about them jesus jesus and i'm like he's reminding me of a homie try-hard days when i was 15 living in south auckland or in east auckland new zealand but here's the deal if the truth is in you it will shine into them if it's a conviction that you have next week potentially we have boss frog andy goulet coming to speak but i've got this this mess okay well maybe we will get him then he i've got this message and what it is and the importance of having personal devotional time because the truth is if you're only feeding if you're only premise for faith if you're on the premise for for getting gold nuggets to walk out of here as a parent as a mother as someone spiritually fed is right now then that's not good it takes an individual disciplinary effort because you have a conviction to draw near to god on a daily basis i want to come back to that but we've got to keep moving so diane that was the point the pancakes are starting to wear off i literally have gotten to a point with hunter now he his teachers told us to help him read so we've been thinking of creative ways well at least i have chrissy still makes him read books and i'm like how else can we do this because i don't find books that interesting as well and so what we've done is hunter now and i when he does his homework he still reads but what he does is we get my ipad out and he says dad can we read the ipad story because we worked out that the bible project has done a narrative or a story for almost all scripture so the other day we're reading about the temptation and and they were talking about the temptation in the garden they were talking about these temptations and then i'm like okay so how do we translate this and have a conversation about this and he's like oh what about like jesus jesus was tempted so when we went to the story of jesus temptation and the devil and like he was reading through it and i make him read through it on my ipad we just watched the story of the temptation and there was even a point where i said man the devil took him to the edge of the mountain and said look off and he said no he didn't dab what we read the devil took him to the top of the temple and i'm like wow he's even picking up intricate things and although i'm talking about a scripture and i'm not trying to present as the oh holy one is if you have the truth in you eventually it will shine into them third thought for the sake of time i know the band's going to come in just a second every day is your opportunity every day is your opportunity in verse 7 it says impress them on your children in other words what we read in verse 6 the commandments shine the light of the things of jesus of the gospel remember we're reading this through the lens of grace right now and press them on your children talk about them when you sit at home when you walk along the road excuse me pancakes when you lie down when you get up i'm not even kidding it's definitely the pancakes if you're a guest here i'm sorry it's the pancakes it's four thoughts to point three he says when you sit at home in other words meal time breakfast time lunch time you know at my house like it's it's like like we always try and sit at the table i'm probably the lazy one i get home i'm like babe can we just sit on the couch and just watch the news and chris is like no we're sitting at the table because that's something that we have we go to grandpa's house and like like we're at my house and my kids are like give me the phone they're like i want to watch this i want to do this i don't want to eat that we go over to my dad's house the kids put the phones away and the kids sit there and they hold their hands even before anyone said anything because they know grandpa stephanie is like like they're at his house you know what i mean but here's the deal when you sit down to eat when you have an opportunity when you're walking along the scripture says the road when i drive to school with hunter in the morning i tell him man you're more than a conqueror you're a champion you don't need to follow other people you are a leader when we went to rugby yesterday and he played the narang balls who were all like my size and he's like this big i'm like just remember when you tackle you're allowed to tackle harder today go as hard as you can pretend you're tackling maxwell and he runs out onto the field i'm like it doesn't matter whether you win or lose it kind of like does but like to really try to win but but but but like just play hard and you end up hurting his knee but like every opportunity we have when you get to lie down at the end of the night hunter every single night comes in even last night tried to sneak into my bed had to drag him out try not to tell chrissy's like funny story tried to drag him out put him in his bed dad can you pray for me pray that i have no nightmares and we've got this cultural thing he knows every night i'm going to say lay your hand on your head and he knows i'm going to say now you start to pray repeat after me holy spirit i give you complete control of my mind i pray that right now you would touch me that you would protect me with the armies of the angels every single night hunter has to have either chris here i usually myself but it's a continuation of guiding him when you have an opportunity to shine to your kids you need to shine to your kids you know some of the kids that we've met in youth here and their parents part of our community they would say like like my dad wasn't around worked really hard and i understand the importance of working for money and working for wealth but when you do have an opportunity these little guys and girls they need us they're depending on us they're hearing and getting an overload of information far more than your and my generation ever got like they've got the iphone the ipad they've got like like snapchat they've got netflix like like my five-year-old was sitting on the couch using the remote with the laser thing we got this cool tv like usually it's on youtube but when she's there it's on something and she knows how to scroll through and choose whether it's netflix disney plus like like they have this overload of information if there was ever a time in history that our kids needed man godly men to shine a light into their life it is now i know i'm emphasizing it but it is now [Applause] we hear it all the time but this is also truly apart from wartime the most fatherless generation the planet has ever seen when you get up and when you have brekkie every opportunity you know i just want to put this there's just a picture not the one in my nephew the video there's a picture if you guys have that picture it was like a screenshot of a youtube video i i want to encourage you if you want to take a photo of this or do whatever but maybe today at some point father's mother's grandparents now you can keep playing it's nice take a photo of this i sat down with my dad the other day and actually i laid down on his couch with nice carpet it was so nice at his house and ate his food and we watched this and there was the point this point where he describes and he's like lucky like in his 60s or 70s and when he was 28 he had an experience where he died on the hospital table and he describes one of a whole bunch of things it's only 20 minutes watch it today it'll be great and and when he comes back the thing that touched my heart apart from the absolute peace from heaven he had the doctor said what was going on he said i didn't want to come back because it was so peaceful he said i absolutely believe in god they're not pushing jesus they're not pushing he's like i just experienced absolute peace and then he said but the one overwhelming thing notion sensation this thing that i just can't get out of my my system is that i need to be a better husband and i need to be a better father he said when i went to heaven when i experienced whatever it was in this after world he said i never wanted to leave but he said when i came back the one thing that i had ingrained in me from the culture of heaven was that i need to love better those people around me i hope that's given you some encouragement to watch it i've exhorted it very well the last thought is repetition works repetition works you know it's it's funny i've shared with you and this is a joke some of the tm boys will get it but when when you use drugs especially crystal meth high speed um it's kind of impossible to sleep and i remember going home in east auckland and my parents house in fact many times and he hires a kite usually shouldn't have slept for days and i'd lie down on what would naturally come to my mind even while i was drug induced like needing to sleep because i was doing carpentry remember my boss one day he pulled me off the top of the frames or i climbed off the top of the frames of the headphones and i said to him what's up and he said i wasn't calling you and he's like you probably need to go get some help and i'm hearing voices like that's how delusional i became but the one thing i know and this is so true is i would sing jesus loves me jesus loves me this i know for the bible tells me so little ones to him be long they are weak but he is strong yes jesus loves me and there was a point because i felt so condemned probably from the devil because i'd been using drugs and doing all the distorted things of the sinful nature where i wouldn't say yes jesus loves me i would sing yes jesus loves us thinking don't say me because like i'm not there and then like i would wake up in the morning like chemically physiology whatever that word is speaking i shouldn't have like fallen asleep to now that when my kids every single one of my kids they know that song yes jesus loves me why because my mum used to sing yes jesus loves me yes jesus you guys know the song most of you in this room i'm sure jason george would love to get up and sing being the new kids church pastor the bible says trust in the lord with all your heart and not upon your own understanding and all your ways submit to him and he will make your power straight you know why that scripture means something to me i don't know if my mum remembers this but i remember in those days of being really for want of a better explanation a drop kick lost needing transformations whatever you want to call it um i would wake up and proverbs 3 5 6 and 7. trust in the lord in all your ways like like it would be like she'd blue tack it around my house and it got into my head because repetition matters repetition works the reason and we go into transformations or at least in the days when i was in transformations i could probably get ari and dave and some of the other guys up here when you go into transformations over the first three weeks we used to have to learn all the books of the bible as genesis exodus leviticus numbers deuteronomy joshua judges ruth we had learned them all and every single week we had to learn like a big chunk of scripture and it gets in you that's why when it comes to times when you're thinking man the bible says conservative pure joy when you face trials of many kinds because the testing of your faith develops perseverance perseverance must finish its work so that you're mature and complete not lacking anything any of you who lack should ask god it grants wisdom freely but when you ask do not doubt because if you doubt you're like a wave blown and tossed by the sea see these things get in you because if you have a lifestyle of repetition and you stay in the word of god again it will become a conviction because it will be ingrained in you and what comes out to your children will reflect the light of god when repetition gets in us it will transfer to the next generation i just got like a real proud uncle moment i want to show you some of us have plaques some of us have things in our kitchens i want to tell you put more up the bible says put things on your foreheads our friend had tattoos on his forehead but you need to get some tattoos of jesus on your forehead that was dancing before if you didn't see it but but but but but but here's the thing like like he says like write it down get into it stay close to it get this this book into you because it will change your life he's saying when you go out of a place of being in slavery and lost and maybe you're a bartimaeus or maybe you're a zacchaeus and all you know is slavery when you get saved and you come into the promised land or salvation what happens is you need guidance you need wisdom and how to continue to live a godly life and the reason that we have this book is not to give us examples of heroes but to give us examples of that were looking in the mirror of people who were just like us that fought the battles that we fought and giving us ex uh testimony and exhortation that if he's done it before through them he'll do it again through us i just want to show you this video the other day i got a text from my sister and she's like hey max my sister and my brother-in-law francis most of you would know that they go over to glow joel's a good friend of mine sometimes family dynamics work better if you're at a distant location me and my sister get along really well now by the way when joel called me he's like hey your sister and your brother and laura here and i'm like yeah i'm kind of like disappointed he's like it's all right my sister and my brother-in-law they got a hillsong and i'm like cool bro i feel better now. but she said hey um uh uh max is actually speaking at glo youth and i'm like wow like my nephew he's 11. 12 and he's almost bigger than me um he's got some old stephanie blood in him and and i thought cool i'll sneak in i'll bring hunter and and i was thinking about this because everything that the scripture is saying that if we shine the light the next generation will pick that up and they'll run with that absolutely some people will come and be coming out and you're the first person in the in this room in in the first person sense that's probably been saved uh set free and delivered and walking after jesus i want to tell you that's amazing because god has broken a generational curse on your line that now you can be the one that shines a light on to another generation [Music] but i turned up and man i was gobsmacked but i was proud i just want to show you this moment listen to the words of a little 11 year old [Music] or anything um that but i'm important in my family but one of the toughest times maybe one year so you can stop there what you don't know is my brother-in-law francis when they're in new zealand living with my parents he had a tumor like the size of a rugby ball the doctors told him like hey there's not a high percentage francis is like a big gentle giant he's like a godly goliath and and and so he was sitting next to me and to hear my nephew say hey i've just grown up in church my whole life it just it struck a chord with me and it was like a proud moment and then the next thing he said he said you know because he said he's like i don't have a testimony three other girls had spoken and they're like i've experienced bullying experienced this and they were exhausters and he's like hey this is just my life he said my dad had cancer and the doctor said that he would probably but he's sitting over here now and he's watching me the room erupted and then he said oh and something else that happened is as a byproduct of the cancer the doctors told him he wouldn't have kids again and then he said but sitting next to my dad is my little sister and my maya my little like she's like she literally she's like little chocolate beautiful girl she's one of the baby suits we prayed for when the doctor said hey it won't happen she stands up on the seat and she's like she's doing that dance you know the the cool dance that i can't do obviously and she's on the seat and i was thinking wow my 12 year old nephew even though he's a nansen is standing on another stage preaching a word even if only for five minutes which then after that they gave an altar call and about 50 kids got saved and i thought about it i'm like there was someone arnold and there was someone arnold and then there was my grandpa arnold and then there was jules stephanie and then there was john stephanie and then there was vanessa and there was vince who's a detective who i know he loves the lord with all his heart and we need to pray for the police in new zealand and then it's transferred down to me and now my kid runs around the house saying let me tell you about them let me tell you about them it's because if you shine the light of jesus in your house it will transfer to the next generation and you know i just think the bible talks about there's a great cloud of witnesses interceding i heard someone else speaking on the reference in fact it was the gentleman that you're going to watch this afternoon and he says what he noticed about those people is they were looking down and they were praying over their family members and they were believing for breakthrough over their family members from a heavenly place ladies and gentlemen i want to tell you today being a godly father shining a light is so important in this generation we can be the difference i just want to show you one thing which is kind of corny and you've probably seen it before if you guys can just pull the lights for me for just one second like all the lights so right now sorry i should have told you if you're scared of the dark we're going to do this but it's too late pray for you but but then if if one father in a world that's dark right now just shines a light i think there might be some more lights in this room it starts to shift and then just a few more lights start to shine i know it's too late for you to get your torches out yeah yeah but the phone's all come on the technology is starting to come out now apple all of it but see what happens is when a few people start to shine the light it actually brightens up the atmosphere you notice the moment that we turn on the light with the illumination power that the light has darkness fled all around it there was no competition there was no battle instantaneously when the light shone darkness left you can bring the lights back up now i hope you get the point i think that's what god was saying to moses [Applause] love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul with all your strength with all your mind and we need to remember now as we go out of this place to love our neighbor as we love ourself would you stand with me in this room i've got a few minutes over you know what i'm really grateful for with the big and tall shop is they do a box cut and they do a slim fit shall i stop while i'm ahead should we tell the story about chrissy you know if you're in this room i really just want to um encourage you right now you probably like me and i never had a good dad i want to tell you you have a father in heaven who made a way to not be in a cosmic galaxy far far away but through sending his son jesus to die on the cross jesus sending the holy spirit as he said in john chapter 14 verse 16 he made a way for us to be in the presence of god and the only qualification is that we make a decision in our heart that we believe in him and we repent which essentially means is to turn away from the things that we're doing sinful nature the lifestyle and we walk to him it's something you can do at home you can simply just say hey jesus i want to ask you forgiveness for the lifestyle that i've been living or it's something that you can do like right now in this room and i hate to miss the opportunity if you can pull the lights up a bit more guys if you're in this room right now father's day maybe you're a young person an old person whoever jesus doesn't discriminate even before you've changed anything he's already accepted you because the price has been paid just with every eye closed and every head bowed if you're in this room and you're saying justin that's me today i want to give jesus my heart i want to invite him and i want to say that i believe in jesus and i want to turn away from some of the things that i'm doing i want to walk forward with him from this day forward if that's you would you just shoot your hand up i can't really see see your hands see your hands see your hands see your hand down the back my friend see your hand see your hand if that was a stretch see your hand down the front anyone else in this room you're just saying hey today's a day i just i want to get my life right i know that god is alive and today's the day on father's day i want him to come and be part of my world see your hands to your hand so many hands up around here why don't we all pray this with me dear jesus i believe that you're the son of god i thank you that you died on the cross to pay the price for my sin today i declare publicly in this room that i believe in you and i make a decision right now to turn away from the lifestyle i've been living i'm inviting you jesus to fill me with your holy spirit would you lead me and guide me from this day on can we give a huge clap for our friends that just said yes to jesus

Channel: Presence Church AU

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Id: 7yGeRHwr7rA

Length: 61min 44sec (3704 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021