The Father’s Heart

Can everyone see me? Can you see me? >> Yeah. >> Got this.

>> I see you. >> Okay. Um, thank you, Zach, for >> uh opening up your coffee house to us. This is great.

Um, what a neat what a neat place and uh what a neat opportunity um here. I am about to be 60 years old and uh I got saved when I was 30 in 1996. So I uniquely have led half my life unsaved and half my life saved. This is the only year I can say that.

Afterwards I'll be saved more less. But um when I first got saved, I was reading the scripture and I saw something where God said David was a man after his own heart. And I prayed the dumbest prayer any man could ever pray. I asked God to make me a man after his own heart.

Um and he answered that prayer. But to know God's heart, you have to know what it's like to be um rejected, you have to know what it's like to be betrayed, you have to know what it's like to um hurt for something that just doesn't love you back. I mean, you just you have to know God's heart hurts, okay? And um uniquely, he also gave me six kids, so I have plenty of practice.

So I think I stand before you as someone who has a better than average understanding of God's heart of the father's heart. Okay? No one can plum the depths of God's heart. But I my prayer today is that as I share this you will see a different aspect of God maybe than you saw before or just get his love maybe on a deeper level than you have before.

Um and so this message is called the father's heart. And the first thing you need to know about God's uh heart is that he loves you. Okay. When uh Kerianne last year had a and I hope I can keep this together.

Kerianne had a um situation where she ended up in the hospital and for days and she wasn't sleeping and and she was slowly checking out and the critical day I think was that Wednesday when um whatever they gave her wasn't working and I needed stronger medicine to get her to sleep. She hadn't slept now in five days and her eyes were going dark. She was literally checking out. Okay.

And I finally at 12:30 was able to convince the hospital administrator to give her something strong and she went to sleep. And when I went home that night, I didn't know that I would see my girl again. And I got down on my knees and I prayed, "God, please God, just take me. Take me.

Don't take her. Take me." And I would pray that prayer for any one of my kids. Okay?

And that's how much God loves you because he did do that. He did take your place. Okay. He went to that cross.

We put little things around our, you know, the cross on our on our necklace or whatever. Man, the cross was bloody. It was splinters. It was rough.

And Jesus took those nails. He took the straps across his back. He did that for you. Okay?

I'm telling you, a father's heart loves you so much he would die for you. And and and wisdom is known by its actions. He actually did. He actually did.

So if you ever doubt that God absolutely loves you and how special you are to him, just look at that cross, man. I mean, if you have to go and watch Passion of Christ again and understand that each time, you know, you're seeing uh it flesh ripped it. It it it was for you. Okay.

Um Psalm 139:17, he says, "Our thoughts, his thoughts towards us are as many as the sands in the sea." Um, so never ever doubt his love. You are a treasured possession of a holy king. You are a treasured possession of a holy king.

You are very special to God. The second thing you need to know about father's heart is that he always wants the best for you. Okay? He um Jeremiah 29:11 says, "We know the plans he has for us, says the Lord, and he had plans to prosper us and not to harm us."

Okay, we know that. That's a pretty common verse. And I think some people, especially if they didn't have a good father, struggled to believe deep down that God wants what's best for them. Okay?

Maybe you had a father who wasn't there, you know, or maybe you had a father that was abusive, or maybe you had a father that was um who ridiculed you or didn't show you the love that you need. I want you to know that that father didn't know what he was doing. Okay? He was hurt himself from way back when.

And you need to forgive him today. I'm telling you from a father's heart, when you make a mistake with your kids, it's not on purpose. You know, you really want what's best for them. You really, really do.

God really wants what's best for you. Now, he's a perfect father. So, where I may mess up, and I have, okay, um he won't. And so, whatever wound you're carrying, I pray that from a father, I pray that you lay it down.

lay it down today because and forgive him. Release him from that guilt. Okay? Release him from that judgment against him which is he did this thing to you.

Okay? You got to release him from it for your own freedom. Okay? Um forgive that person.

God, however, is a perfect father. He's not hurting you. Um we may get hurt by sin. We're wounded because of the world, but God works it for good.

Hurting people hurt people. And so living on this planet, you're gonna get hurt. Okay? But God works it all for good.

Romans 8:28 is unequivocally true. He works all things for good for those who love him and are called according to his word. Unequivocally true. 30 years of testing it.

Even before I was saved, he was watching over me. Okay? He Everyone probably in this room can point to a time that was really tough and in hindsight they say that's the worst thing that ever happened to me. I wouldn't wish it on my enemies but I'm so glad it happened because it made me this.

I hear that over and over and over again. If you hear that, that is God working in the bad. That is God taking bad and turning it for your good. He does that every time.

The father of the heart, the heart of the father wants what's best for you always. Okay. In 2010, my business was in the toilet. Um, my wife left me with four kids.

It was a hard hard time. Um, and again, it was the best time in hindsight because it grew me. And not only did I have growth, my kids all ended up okay. they're all okay, you know, and and so he worked it all for good.

I've tested this for 30 years, okay? He works everything for good. It's an absolute truth. It's as sure as the sky is blue out there, okay?

Um so if you've been hurt, I pray that you take it to Jesus. Okay? Ask him to heal you of that. By his stripes, you are healed.

Okay? I'd ask you to heal. Ask him to heal you. Um, forgive the person who hurt you and rise up and be free.

Okay? Repentance and forgiveness brings freedom. Okay? Repentance, asking God to forgive you for what you did and then asking the person to forgive you.

You've wronged and you're free. That's real freedom. Okay? You're you're you're released from it.

Okay? So, third thing about God that you need to know, he is abundant. My kids um well, Ephesians 3:20 says he can do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we ask or think. Okay?

My kids don't know what it's like to hear from me anyway. Um we can't afford it. Okay? They don't know really what it's like to lack um for for food or sustenance or anything else like that.

Um, and it's not because, oh, you know, I'm for it's because God is abundant. He flows it through me and it flows down to them. Um, now I don't buy stupid stuff, you know. Um, don't buy $100,000 car, build an orphanage instead.

Right. Right, Lords. Um, but but I've learned that you can trust God with your money. Okay.

2009 through 2013, man. just making payroll was robbing Peter to pay Paul and all these these shenanigans that I had to do to just try to make it. And and it came to a day where despite everything I'd done, I was going to be $3,200 short. And that morning, I'm like, God, maybe I'm in the wrong place.

Maybe I'm not supposed to be here, God. Maybe maybe you want me somewhere else. If if we don't make payroll today, I'm just going to shut the the doors of that business. And um that day exactly 3,200 got wired into my account from something that happened years ago that I had no idea, no whatever the exact dollar amount of what I needed.

That happened one other time as well. And what that does is I you begin to learn that you can trust God. Okay? And I haven't worried about money ever since because I know he's got this.

Okay? He's in control, not me. And so you want to get your heart to that place where you trust them in every aspect of your life, including your money. Um, one of our uh members last week came to me and said that they wanted to match whatever the tithe was this week.

And it's not a member you would think, okay? Um, it's not me. And um, it was very surprising. So whatever tithes are giving this week are going to be matched.

And for those who don't know from from from here, I pay all the bills in the church and then the tithes go straight into local ministry and the community because that's what I believe the church needs to be about is the local ministry, the local community. Um and so I want to challenge you to to to start that process of the tithe. You know, I've taught on it before. Start it.

God is abundant. You can trust him in things regarding money, regarding life, regarding relationships. You can trust him. Okay?

You really can trust the father. He is a good father. The heart of the father wants to give good things to his children. John 15:7 says, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you."

Okay, that's a promise of that was Jesus speaking. That's a promise of scripture. You got to ask in his will. But if you spend time with God, you're going to be asking in his will.

And he wants to give good things to you. That's just who he is. Okay. Um, fourth thing about God is that he cares enough to discipline you.

Okay. Let me pull up Proverbs 13:24. He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly. The heart of the Jesus loves you just as you are.

Just as you are. Okay? But he loves you too much to leave you there. He wants to grow you.

He wants to take you to a better place. He wants to to to improve that situation in you. And sometimes that may mean we may have to discipline you. Okay.

If a father's love is shown through that, not beating but discipline, then a God, perfect father is going to do that. Sometimes the things that happen to us are to teach us something. Okay. Zachary, I'm picking on my kids since they're here.

Um, Zachary when he was in high school. So, Zachary was my firstborn son. Is my firstborn son. That doesn't change.

But uh he was my pride and joy growing up, man. Especially when he hit nine to about 11, 12. He just wanted to be with me. He wore the same clothes.

He held his hand in the pocket the same way. He he he did, you know, I'm going to Home Depot, honey. Can I come, Dad? You know, he's just wanted to be with me.

He was my little buddy. Something happened around 14 and he just changed. Whether he hung around different people, whether started doing drugs, whatever. Um, he changed and the next three and a half years were just a battle.

Just a battle. Just a brutal, brutal, brutal battle. Um, he just, if I said yes, he said no. He's just going to say it.

And and he lost so much, man. He's driving a Toyota Tundra now. I was going to give him a gorgeous Toyota Tundra. He lost that, you know?

I mean, again, the heart of the father's good, right? I was going to give him abundantly. Lost that because of stupidity. And um it was just nonstop.

Okay. Thankfully, thankfully about three months left in his high school career, he's at a church service on a Wednesday and and he's he's questioning things about God and the and the guy up preaching says, "You know what? I think someone's struggling." And he just starts and Zach would ask a question and the guy was answering the question, changing his thing.

It was like God was just speaking to him that day and it really changed him and he and he came back. Um he got his house straight and actually after high school he came to work for me and 11 years later still working with me. So it all worked out. But you can't hide stuff from God.

Okay. He may bring discipline because you don't have the proper resurre reverential fear of the Lord. Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." I jokingly will say to my kids, I brought you into this world and I can take you out.

Which isn't true, but it is true of God. God did bring you into this world and God can take you out. Okay? We should have a respect of a father, respect his authority.

Now, after Zach and after seeing that for all the years, the other kids generally obeyed. Now, they might have done things I didn't know about, sneak around. Okay, she's saying, "Yes, that obviously is true." Um, but to me, they obeyed.

And so, it was much easier for the other five kids. They, you know, the twins still are. Yes, sir. No, sir.

you know that the the the great um be an obedient kid. God knows everything you're doing. Okay? Stop kicking against the goat.

Respect his authority and just obey him. It's so much easier to be an obedient son or daughter. Just obey him, man. Stop messing around not obeying God.

Obey God. He's just good. If you do, good things will happen. It's really, you know, it's it's really is true.

Do good stuff, good stuff happens. God's God's good. He's a good good father. Um, another aspect of God of his heart is that he forgives and he forgets.

Okay? I remember how hard the disciplining was of Zach, but I don't remember most of what he did. Okay? Every once in a while, the kids will say, "Remember when Zach did that?"

And I'm like, "Oh, yeah. Forgot about that." Now, that's because I, you know, I forget things. But, but the heart of the father doesn't cling to that stuff.

Okay? God specifically says it's as far as the east is from the west. He has forgiven you. Okay?

If you ask him to forgive you, he has not just forgiven it, but he has forgotten it. Okay? He sees you. I see you as a good man with a good heart.

Okay? and people don't uh maybe understand you because there's still a smidgen of a militant uh uh in you. Okay. Um but you're a good man with a good heart and you're going to be a good father and a good um husband and you just need to know that.

And God sees each one of us as the beautiful person that he created. Okay? He sees your deep heart. He sees you that way.

When you take something to him and you ask him to forgive you of it, he's forgotten it and he's looking down at a little Jesus and he's just seeing you through the blood of Jesus and he's seeing you as this beautiful thing, the way you were created to be. Okay? He sees the beauty deep down. So the father's heart not just forgives, but he forgets.

He sees the best in you. When he looks at you, he sees you lovingly. Okay. And you need to forgive yourself.

Okay. One of the worst things we do is we ask God to forgive something and and he's forgiven it and he's forgotten about it, but we carry it on. We we still cling on to it. Like we're not good enough to actually have been forgiven.

Like we're not good enough to to to be his kid. Like we have to do something else to get him to to truly forgive us. Like he didn't just forgive us. People get baptized sometimes six, seven times, you know?

that they didn't embrace it the first time, you know. Um, you need to forgive yourself and embrace his love. He's forgiven you. He's forgotten it.

Why are you still carrying it around? Um, you've got to let that go. Embrace this in your own life. Embrace the father's love.

Bring it into the light. Okay? Don't hide it. You did something bad in your past.

Let it out. Let everyone know. Okay? Um, let God, ask God to heal it and embrace the healing.

He really will heal you. He really will heal that hurt and then you're free, man. And it's so much better. Um, one more thing about the father's heart, and these are the aspects.

There's there's lots of levels to to God's heart. Okay? I'm just brushing the surface, but I'm hoping you're seeing different things. God is a protector.

Okay, we all have guardian angels. Okay, there are there's demonic we don't see the spiritual world, but there is fighting going on. Demonic fighting going on. And God is protecting you more than you realize.

All right, even before I was saved, God was watching over me because I did stuff in college that should have taken me out, but he kept me because he had a purpose and a plan for me. Um, I tell my kids all the time that I got angels on my wheels, you know, when I drive. So, so the word on the street is I'm not a good driver, okay? According to my kids.

And I just tell them we and I got angels on my wheels. We're fine. And we never get in an accident. We are always fine, you know.

Um, and and I don't think I'm as bad as they think I am. But but but if I do see a son and it's pretty, I do, you know, that does happen. Um, but he just I just I just know that he's just going to protect me. That doesn't mean I do stupid stuff.

I don't jump out of a plane um without a parachute. Okay. Um I'm not doing stupid stuff to test it. But God is good.

And people will say, "How can how can God allow say a 23 year old child dies, okay? And he was a good kid. and you went to to school and and I got asked this just this week. How could God allow something like that to happen to my my kid?

And and and I feel that hurt because a parent should never have to bury their kid. That's that's that's tough. Okay. And I get it.

But we don't understand the spiritual aspect of life. We only see this little finite thing here. Okay? Not only is that child only their body's gone, their spirit is still there.

And and you're worried about the next 10 or 20 years of your life or you won't see him. If you're going to heaven and he's in heaven, you're going to see him for 10 or 20,000 years. Okay? So, so it's just a blip.

But more importantly than that, you don't know the spiritual aspect of what's up. Maybe the plan that God had for him was completed and God wanted to bring him back home. Okay? Or maybe God knows that that kid was about to go the wrong way and cause a lot of damage and hurt people's lives and he lovingly took him out before he could do that.

Okay? We don't know. And the thing is we want to search for answers, but sometimes God can't we can't fathom the answer and God's just not going to tell you. Okay, as a parent, you know this.

You tell your kids something they they don't understand why or whatever and you just say those classic words because I said so. Okay? Right? Every parent's probably said it.

Why? Because they can't grasp to explain it to them would introduce concepts that they can't grasp at their age. And so they can't understand it. And so you just have to tell them because I said so and they just have to trust it.

Okay? And and that's the way it is with us. Sometimes things happen that seem not fair. Okay?

You just have to trust God is good and trust that the reason he will he will unveil it to you in his time and it might be in eternity. Okay? But you will understand one day why whatever bad thing happened to you. But we've got to trust God.

And trusting him on that level when we don't understand is a growth opportunity to become greater and more in love with the father than we were prior to um think of all the other good God's done. You can trust God. You can trust the heart of a heavenly father. Finally, last thing I'm going to say about it is God is trustworthy and true.

He is always there for you. Okay. He Hebrews 13:5 says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." It's a beautiful, beautiful promise.

You can't go far enough away from God. He's there. Nothing you can do can cause him not to love you. Okay.

My my daughter, one that's not here, um, walked away from me for a while. Okay? She struggled with God. She struggled with me.

She walked away from me. my text. You know when you text and on one side is zero and now the response is the other. Well, for like two years there was just one line of text.

Me texting her, no response back, right? And uh and she ultimately came back. But think of the prodigal son story, you know, when the prodical son goes off, does a horrible thing to the father and goes off. The I sat there waiting for her to return, praying every day because I couldn't control that and and waiting for his her return.

And she did come back. Okay. and and she's she's in it and she's she's uh she's growing and it's beautiful. And so the prodigal son is the same thing.

The father was standing there before the kid even saw the father. The father was out there looking. Okay? The father's always there for you.

Even when you walk away, even when you do bad things, he's still lovingly there waiting for you to come back. You can't go far enough away from him. No matter what my kids do, I love them. I didn't love the one who walked away any less during those years.

We had a different relationship because there was no time spent. But but the love was the same. God loves each one of us the same. Okay?

And and there's nothing you can do. My kids could kill someone and I'm still going to love them. Okay? Got to get on them.

Don't do it. But but but but you never lose that love as a father for those kids. You never do. Okay?

And and God is even more perfect. No matter what they do, I'm going to love them. And God is the same way about you. He's the same way about you.

Um I'm going to end reading Psalm 139. It is uh we started this saying David was a man after God's own heart. And uh David wrote this psalm. So David who understands God's heart.

This is what he's writing. Psalm 139. Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up.

You understand my thought a far off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. He knows everything about you. Okay?

Everything about you. He absolutely loves you. Um, for there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, oh Lord, you know it all together. You have hedged me behind and before.

Meaning, he's got a thing of protection around you. Okay, we were just talking about that. He's a protector. All right, David gets it.

And you laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. Have you ever been there where you're like, God, how can he love me? You know, it's too wonderful for me.

It is high. I cannot attain it. Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the utter uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand will lead me. Okay?

And your right hand shall hold me. remember that poem uh or whatever it's called footprints where there's two footprints in the sand, you know, and then and it's the person's life and as he's looking back at his life, he realizes during the hardest times of his life, there's just one set of footprints. And he goes to God, why did you leave me at my times of struggle? He said, "My son, that's when I carried you."

David says here, "And your right hand shall hold me." He will hold you. He will take care of you. He will protect you.

If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me," even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as a day, and the darkness and the light are both alike to you, for you formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed.

And in your book they were all written. The days were fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them. He had a plan for your life before you were born according to David in this psalm who gets God's heart. Okay?

He's got a plan for you. He's got something special for you. How precious also are your thoughts to me, oh God. How great is the sum of them?

If I should count them, they should be more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am with you. David gets it. Okay.

He was a man after his own heart. And and so my question here, do you know him? Okay. Do you know him like this?

And I said, my music's come. If you don't know him, I pray that we we get that right today. Okay? If you don't know him quite like that, if he's if there's a something that I shared where you feel a hurt or you feel that's you're unsure, you feel like something like you've got to release it.

I pray that you do that here now. Okay? Start spending time with him. Start learning to trust him.

Okay? If you're harboring a hurt or a pain, you don't feel you're worthy, lay it down, okay? Accept forgiveness. Embrace his love.

Um, the heart of the father is good. He loves you. He loves you. Okay?

There's nothing you can do about it. He just loves you. Let me pray over this. Um, you got to you got to use my feelings.

Come on. Um, heavenly father, Lord, I thank you so much that uh you are a a magnanimous God, Lord, that you would love us so deeply so much that that that you're there for us, that you will take care of things, that we can trust you. Lord, I just pray now in this time that that whatever hurts are there, people lay down, whatever I just pray that they will choose to trust you in all their ways and um grow up into the love, the beautiful love of the father. Jesus name.

Amen.