Jimmy Evans – The Father Heart of God

if you have your Bibles there you can actually turn to Ephesians 6 and I want to bring a message a specific message for Father's Day but it's called the father heart of God the picture of a perfect parent and this is this weekend of Father's Day when we you know celebrate fatherhood and all of that we remember in Ephesians 6 this comes actually from the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament that God said children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right honor your mother and father which is the first commandment with a promise that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth and that comes from Exodus 20 verse 12 and so the commandment is is that we honor our mothers and fathers let me say as children obey their parents and honor them but once we leave home we don't have to obey our parents now if they're giving you money they get a vote okay so as long as you're on the payroll they get a vote what I want to say that right now but we honor our parents as we get older with were married we have a sovereign home but we still honor our mothers and fathers but I want you to think about this imagine how important this is to God that he attaches a promise to this saying if you honor your mothers and fathers it will go well with you in life in you'll live a long life now when your children are born you want two things for your kids you want it to go well with them in life and you want them to live a long life right that's what this says right here so when you train your children to honor you you are preparing them for this promise now I saw my mother and father and I've seen Karen's mom and dad do this my grandparents in Karen's grandparents my parents sacrificially and lavishly cared for my grandparents is they got older and died I mean financially in every way you can think about it they did that Karen's parents have done the same thing and so you say well is this promise true my dad passed away when he was 80 years old nine years ago my mother's 89 Karen's mom's 89 and Karen's dad's 90 and they're all doing well right now and you look at this you look at this promise and you say if if I take care of my mom and dad if I they're all imperfect every human is imperfect the only perfect parent is God the Father and that's what this message is about I want to talk about God but this is hunting an unqualified promise it doesn't say if your parents are good parents honor them it doesn't say if they're perfect parents honor them this is unqualified it just simply says honor your mother and father and the commandment is clear but related to father's one of the things that we need to understand about men is we are most motivated by honor and respect it's our number one need what I'm teaching in marriage conferences what I teach is on the four needs have been of four needs of women the number one need of women is security but the number one need of men is honor it motivates us more than anything else in first Peter 3 makes a promise to women and it says you can change your husband without using any words as he observes your chaste and respectful behavior respect and honor is so important to a man we will change our behavior to the one giving it to us so if you want to motivate a man give him respect if you want a man to change give him respect it's the most important that need that we have in life so this message has three parts to it first of all I want you to understand your perfect father in heaven we all have a perfect father somebody say Amen you have a perfect father he's just the most fabulous father in the world the second thing is I talk about God God is our role model is men we want to be like God in other words more than more than I want to be like my earthly father though he's a great man more than I want to be like any other man I want to be like God and so to be a godly father means I'm like God but in this message it also tells us specifically what we honor our fathers for and again all of them were imperfect and when I talk about you know some of the issues here of being a father maybe your father earthly father did do all these things well but we still must honor them but I can promise you they did something right and we need to focus on that I'm gonna spell father I'm gonna use father as an acronym and I'm gonna spell father and I'm going to talk about the traits of God the Father and traits of good father so we're just gonna spell father we're gonna with F and the F stands for faithful provision in care our God is a faithful God and he provides for us he cares for us this is Matthew 6 jesus said therefore I say to you do not worry about your life what you will eat or drink or about your body what you will put on is not life more than food in the body more than clothing look at the birds of the air for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns for your heavenly Father feeds them are you not more valued more valued than they which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature so why do you worry about clothing consider the lilies of the field how they grow they neither toil nor spin and yet I say to you that even Solomon and all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these now if God so clothes the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow was thrown into the oven will he not much more clothe you oh you of little faith therefore do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink with what should we wear for after all these things the Gentiles seek for your heavenly Father knows that you need all of these things but seek first the kingdom of God in His righteousness and all of these things shall be added to you our God is a faithful provider he's a faithful God that's what Jesus don't worry don't you you have nothing to worry about you did you know that God loves being your father and did you know when you don't trust him you robbed him of that opportunity he absolutely loves being a father more than any of us jesus said if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your Father give good gifts to those who ask him listen he calls us evil in comparison to God the best father on earth is evil compared to God the Father he is the perfect parent and he's a faithful God Hebrews 13:5 let your conduct be without covetousness be content with such things as you have for he himself has said I will never leave you I will never forsake you God has made two promises to all of us and one of the promises is he will never physically leave us the other promises he will never turn his heart away that's what forsake means you can be sitting next to a person who's turned their hard way from God says I will never when God says never he means never when people say never they means well maybe never when God says never it means absolutely it will never happen ever ever ever ever I will never leave you and I will never turn my heart away in your worst hour when you're committing your worst sin at the lowest point in your life I will not reject you this is the promise of a great father he's always there he's always faithful but there are two exhortations also in that scripture it says let not your conduct be with or without covetousness be content with such things as you have covetousness flows out of an orphan spirit see orphans don't have fathers when you're an orphan you're your own provider and there's a lot of anxiety when you're an orphan and a lot of us growing up when we don't have the care that we need we develop an orphan spirit an orphan has to have too much to have enough so you're always covetousness you're always discontented you always have to have more and you can never rest because you have an orphan spirit and God the Father comes up and says listen child you have a rich father and he's very generous calm down we are father children we are father children he will never leave us or forsake us we don't have to be covetous we don't have to be worried about tomorrow and all of those things like that God loves being our Father 2nd Timothy 2:2 this is the Apostle Paul to Timothy and the things which you have heard from me among many witnesses commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also it's interesting when Paul is talking to Timothy about the church and he's talking about you know who he's going to spend his time you know investing in he says commit these things that I've taught you to faithful men he didn't say gifted he didn't say influential there were many other things he could have said that he didn't say and you say well why why Jimmy is faithful and so important that the Apostle Paul would point that out if a man isn't faith well it doesn't matter what else he is his lack of faithfulness will negate everything else if a man is faithful it makes up for what else he isn't his faithfulness will endear him to his wife and children his faithfulness will make him useful and successful faithfulness and to be faithful it means that we sacrificially commit ourselves to God our wives and our children that means I don't care what happens I don't care how difficult it becomes I don't care what we go through we're going through it together I absolutely commit myself to you and secondly your first God is first my wife is second my children is third and everything else is negotiable I'll give up everything else but I will not give up my God in my family I will be faithful to that the a and father is attentiveness God knows every detail of our lives and he cares this is Jesus Matthew 10 are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin and not one of them falls to the ground apart from your father's will but the very hairs of your head are all numbered do not fear therefore you're a more value than many sparrows Matthew 6 therefore do not worry saying what should we eat what should we drink what should we wear for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things Matthew 6:6 when you pray go into your room and when you have shut the door pray to your father who is in the secret place and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly now my father and I told you about my relationship with my father my father was he was not a good father growing up but he was one of 10 kids he slept outside every night my father grew up in abject poverty he didn't have any of his father he was drawing out of an empty bucket he literally just he was a much better man than he should have been from where he came from but my father was inattentive he would come home from work he worked very hard he was workaholic and he would come home and he was just brain-dead he would just he would sit in his chair and watch TV all night and he he didn't know and I was into all kinds of nonsense and my father just didn't know but when I got married and had kids I became just his long cat's in the cradle you understand that song I became just like my dad in Karen I was home I was home I was with my children and I loved my children but I wasn't there I just I was somewhere else and Karen you know being a good woman and a bit a good mother she would constantly say Jimmy the kids need this the kids need this you know and trying trying to guide me back to the kids and it was just you know it just didn't stick I just kept turning my heart back to work especially and I remember the moment the instant when I became a good father I was sitting in a meeting in church I was a pastor and the kids were probably around ten and seven something like that and I was sitting in a meeting and all of a sudden I couldn't wait to be home and be with my children you know I know it was because of Karen I know it was because of her prayers because I know that Karen was praying for my heart to change that did change and I went home that night and I was home I was with my children and even when I wasn't with my children I was with my children fathering is a hard issue it's a heart issue my heart was not home listen to me you are on God's heart he has nothing better to do than to father you he knows every detail of your life and he cares because of the way I was Father they used to think about myself God doesn't know me I mean God God so loved the world they gave His only begotten Son and I'm in the world so I know God loves me because he loves the world but he doesn't know who I am now I'm I'm convinced I'm pretty much his favor not really God all of us are God's favorite somebody say Amen he's a perfect father he's attentive he knows who you are he knows where you live he knows every single need in your life let him father you number three at E and father his time commitment Matthew six but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you time commitment means God wants our time and he's willing to give us all of his did you know if you want to spend all day with God he'll spend all that with you constantly here's how children spell love T I am he they need your love more than they need a new tennis shoes they need your love and your time more than they need a new house or anything else that needs your time a time commitment God is not into zapping God's could zap many things in our lives but God loves the journey he loves spending time with his family and so good fathers commit time quality time to their children and time is the essential commodity of relationship if I wanted to keep you from being successful in business all I have to do is Rob your money if I want to keep you from being successful in relationship all I have to do is Rob your time it is impossible to be close to a person you don't spend time with it's the old saying if the devil can't get in front of you in Stocki he'll get behind you and push you too fast but he'll keep you from spending time with the most important people in your lives this is why you have to fight this is why you have to be willing to sacrifice to spend the time that we need to spend with our families but because God gives us all of his time all of his eternity that he'll spend with us the H in father is a heart of mercy and grace the Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in mercy he will not always strive with us nor will he keep his anger forever he has not dealt with us according to our sins nor punished us according to our iniquities for as the high as the heavens are above the earth so great is his mercy toward those who fear him as far as the East is from the west so far he has removed our transgressions from us as a father pities his children so the Lord pities those who fear Him it's a good thing to know isn't it the God is merciful and gracious 1st Peter 1:3 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ no mercy and mercy and grace are different and we need to understand the difference if you stole my money and I came to you and I caught you mercy means I'm not going to give you what you deserve I should call the police I should have you arrested I'm not going to do that grace means I'm going to give you the money mercy means I'm not going to give you what you deserve grace means I'm going to give you what you don't deserve in other words I'm going to help you even though you don't deserve it God is not just merciful he's gracious he gives us everything that we don't deserve that Jesus died for so that we can be the people that God wants us to be God is very tender-hearted and gracious the devil wants you to believe that God is mean and distant in austere and he's angry at you nothing could be further from the truth the reason the devil wants you to believe that is so you'll you won't run to God you're not going to jump in Daddy's lap when daddy's mad so he's constantly trying to convince you that daddy's mad listen daddy was mad but 2,000 years ago he took it all out on Jesus and when Jesus meant it is finished that means all of the anger of God was vented on Jesus Christ now every believer we have been forgiven through Jesus and daddy says come jump in my lap because it's a lap of grace and mercy it's the only way we're going to become the people that we need to be when our daughter was in the fifth grade I remember this very graphically she was in the fifth grade and she had a math teacher she didn't laugh and Julie our daughter is very smart girl and always made good grades but she'd like this math teacher and she'd come home every day and she would just rant on this math teacher and we support Authority we didn't take up our children's offense Authority because they're always trying to get you to take up their offense there's several times they would come home and say something that we thought was over-the-line and we dealt with it but even then very respectfully but Jilly kept coming home saying dad this math teacher you know she's terrible she's hateful she doesn't know math she don't okay so so that's six weeks she came home with an F on her report card and she had never met anything close from them and when she brought the F home she said I told you she don't know how to teach I said Julie you know what the name Evans means she said no it means overcomer where Evans's we overcome people and circumstances will come against you for the rest of your life and you better learn right now to overcome because of Jesus we can overcome anything in our lives and I'm not gonna let you be overcome by this teacher says here's what I'm going to do if you bring this F up to an a on your next report card I'm gonna give you $100 and if you need help I'm not gonna discipline you for making this F if you need help we'll hire you a tutor but I'll give you $100 now Brent our son was sitting there and he said I make good grades what do I get the be quiet I'm talk to your sister yes he shook me down I had to give you some money expensive F she brought it up to a name she brought her report card home look dad I was looking in the eyes of an overcomer I wanted to teach her right then we have high standards shooting and we're not gonna lower our standards but we understand to get there you need mercy and grace I didn't punish her I rewarded her no one wants to listen to me if you only punish your children you're on the wrong side of the equation good parents reward and punish Hebrews 11:6 says without faith it's impossible to come to God for heat those who come to God must it was impossible to please God for those who come to God must believe that he is and he is a rewarder to those who please him or diligently seek Him we under we need to understand as parents you don't have to give your children something for everything good that they do but there are some times you know that you say you know if you guys do your chores and if you get along the rest of the day we'll go get a good ice cream rather than just saying if y'all fight again I'm gonna kill you so we kept our three grandkids this week so I understand all this very well it takes your Christianity but but you rewards your children Julie Julie never made a bad grade like that again and for the rest of the year she overcame that teacher she overcame that circumstance and so God is a God of mercy and grace listen God has high standards for you but he knows that you're just a human being he knows that you're struggling he knows that you're in a world trapped with a devil and evil and that you're dis flesh so he's not gonna lower his standards but he's gonna give you grace and mercy to get where you're gonna get somebody say Amen the EE and father his expressive love he's expressive this is Matthew 3 when he had been baptized Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold the heavens were open to him and he saw the Spirit of God to send like a dove and alighting upon him and suddenly a voice came from heaven saying this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased the the Ministry of Jesus began with this announcement from heaven from God this is my beloved son I love my son that's another way to say it I love my son and I'm so pleased with him the the open affection of a father is critical to a child's self-esteem their security and their sexual development it's very critical children need the physical and verbal affection of their father now again I want to talk about my father and I love my father my father got saved he was a wonderful man I'd never touched my father growing up from the time I was three till the time I was 38 I'd never physically touched my father and I never heard him say that he loved me I did hear him say that he was proud of me and many things like that but I would say to my father daddy I love you and he would say I do you too and I know he didn't with my brothers and I joke about it you know Damon in Lucifer and I we I decided when our children were born that I was gonna be affectionate with the kids and even though I lacked in many other qualities I would hold Brent and Julie and I would tell him I loved him I'd put him to bed at night pray with him and tell him I loved him I played golf yesterday with Brent my son and my grandson Reed and when we left we hugged and told each other we loved each other you know that's that's what men do when I started going to Trinity Fellowship Church tamarillo and I had come out of a background of no affection and and I'd gone to a church where there was no expression it was just not a expression Church when I went to Trinity for the first time a man that I didn't know hugged me and I thought no wait just a minute now you just don't come up yours in my space dude and then another one then another one then another one and I thought what are these people you know I mean wait this is weird but I like it because they were giving me something I've never had my entire life now some of you you don't understand what it's like never to be touched when I was in the sixth grade I was a problem child well every grade I was a problem child but I mean see great music didn't start at sixth rate but only one teacher ever figured me out miss Thompson she was my math teacher in sixth grade and she would walk up and talk to me and she touched me I was I was a I was just a maniac no other teacher figure that but she'd walk up and she'd put her hand on me I'd do anything for her she touched me children need to be touched they need to be held they need to hear that they're worth fighting for they need to hear that they have what it takes they need to hear that you're pleased with them even if they've done ten things wrong they need to hear the one thing they've done right to build their self-esteem are in father relational Authority God is our authority but it's relational Hebrews 12 if you endure chastening God deals with you as sons for what son is there whom a father does not chase in if you're without chastening of which we have all become partakers you are illegitimate not sons furthermore we have had human fathers who corrected us and we paid them respect shall we not much more readily being subject of being a subjection to the father of spirits and live for they indeed for a few days chastened us has seemed best to them but he for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness and so God disciplines us but it's because He loves us he's our Father Ephesians 6 children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right honor your father and mother which is the first commandment with a promise that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth and father's do not provoke your children to wrath but bring them up in the training and the admonition of the Lord non-relational parenting breaks the child's spirit and provokes some grass if you're not if you bark at your children if you if you demand of your children if you have not patiently explained to your children what you expect of them you don't have the right to discipline is his father's bring your children up in the admonition of the Lord that means patiently training them patiently explaining things to them you don't just bark at them and demand of them you spend time training them and they should know what you expect they should know right and wrong and if you just bark at them in a non relational manner it breaks their spirit and provokes them to rent and so when Brent was fifteen years old you know Brent bris always been a good kid of things in his service so I'm gonna be careful what I say but rip brim is a good kid sweet kid but when he became a teenager is a teenager you know and he just kind of tested all the boundaries and stuff and and so I one day I said to Karen Brent was about maybe 12 or 13 I said Karen you're a wonderful mother but I'm gonna make a man out of him you can't make a man out of Brent I'm gonna make a man out of you and she kind of looked like me like oh no and I just because I was you know because she had done a great job mothering but this time for him to grow up so Brent was testing all the boundaries and it was just you know mano-a-mano there you know brent was growing up by the way I'm six-two people think I'm short on the stage is bigger whatever rince six four and he was a football player and I mean he was one day we were wrestling you know at first it was play and that was survival we were wrestling and he said that I'm gonna put you against that wall over there and I said you and what army when I said army I was against the wall and that's why you teach him to mind when they're little so Brent was 15 and he was struggling and Karen tech came to me and we were we're at it Brent and I were at it you know we were just going after each other and I was frustrated with him and he's frustrated that means so Karen came at me one day she said you're losing Brent and I said well I don't want to lose branch she said what you're losing so I prayed about it I went to print one day I said hey you wanna play golf it was middle of winter and Amaral he said well dad it's winter time I said no you wanna go somewhere if I go he said like wearing I said Phoenix he said when I said today he's I'm in school I said I'll get you out he said seriously I said yeah then go play golf yeah we flew to Phoenix and we got into Phoenix we were renting a car and he said dad can we rent a convertible he was just about to drive I said yes we rented a convertible so we wouldn't see the Phoenix signs the Portland Trailblazers that's when Charles Barkley was with the Suns and Clyde Drexler was with the Trailblazer fantastic game and we went to the movies when I think we play golf every day some on the third day playing golf we were sitting in the golf cart and we were waiting for some people in front of this to hit their Paul he was just kind of quiet in the golf garden game Prince said dad why are you being so hard because I love you and I'm worried about you and we talked for 20 or 30 minutes we made up he said dad I know I don't want to be like that and I said Bren I'm sorry I've been too hard on you I kind of a son bag I was not at relational enough as a father I wasn't spending time with him we weren't enjoying each other our God doesn't bark from heaven he lives in our hearts he's with us he does discipline that's what Hebrew says but it's because he loves us his men we have the perfect role model we're not perfect but we have the perfect role model let me just kind of go through these again God is a faithful provider he's faithful in everything he's a tenant he gives us all of his time he has a heart of mercy and grace he has expressive love and relational authority that's the picture of a perfect father I want to say it again all of us in here I don't know your father who he is who he was whatever and you need to honor him obviously but we all have the perfect father and that's the picture of him right there that's what the Bible says about God once you beg heads with me if you would Lord we we believe what your word says about you some of us have this conception in our minds or misconception that you're angry that you're distant that you don't care that you don't know us but that nothing could be further from the truth and we don't want to live one more second of our lives with an orphan spirit if that's what we have we put faith in who the Bible says you are and we want to relate to you like that for all these men fathers and grandfathers I pray a blessing on them let us all learn from this message let us all grow in our love for our children and grandchildren and I just pray an anointing of fathering Lord you're the one with that anointing would you put an anointing of fathering on all of us men and just like I told about the day that my heart turned toward my kids if there's a man like me that was struggling to keep his heart turned toward his home father would you just turn his heart right now would you turn our hearts to each other and just give us an anointing to be a father of our children and every single one of us make the commitment whether our parents are alive or dead from this day forward we will honor our fathers and mothers and we will claim the promise that we're going to live a long life and it's going to go well with us in Jesus name Amen

Channel: gatewaychurchtv

Views: 23,531

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Keywords: gatewaypeople, Gateway, Gateway Church, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert, Savior, Dallas, Southlake, Texas, Jesus, Sermon, salvation, christ, Love, prophecy, Jimmy Evans, Fathers Day

Id: RhlZ53R1Iks

Length: 32min 17sec (1937 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 18 2018