The Father Who Understands

In this message, The Father Who Understands, we discover that God is not distant from our struggles. He is a loving Father who sees us, understands us, and invites us to walk in His light.

Jesus declared:
"I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life." — John 8:12

No matter what you're facing today, Jesus offers hope, truth, and a new way forward. His light exposes fear, guides our steps, and leads us into the life God created us to live.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Thank you so much for tuning in. My name is Max, and today I'm going to share with you a sermon that I shared on Father's Day at our church. The title of this sermon is The Father Who Understands. And I'll open it up with John chapter 8, verse 12. Jesus spoke to the people and said, I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life. I have been a person that has uh been very fortunate and blessed with a great father on earth, but not everybody gets that. And I I'm well aware of that. But either way, whether you never knew your dad, he's gone, he didn't measure up to what you had hoped, or you had a great father or had a great father, um, there's still something that you can, I think, take away from this, and that is that a relationship with God can help you to overcome all the confusion, all the tough things that life will throw at us. And having access to a heavenly father, Father God, uh, through Jesus has changed my life. So a little bit about me, I grew up in Whalen, Massachusetts, very nice town. Um I was very fortunate. We had a great childhood, but there was still something missing on the inside of me. And I'm sure I was very difficult uh for my parents to manage uh because I just I had all this built-up frustration. I had no patience, and yeah, that led to lots of problems. Well, when I was 17 years old, I noticed that my good friend something changed in his life. And I didn't know exactly what it was, but I did know that he uh spoke to his faith. He didn't preach to me, but he testified that God had helped him. And I didn't really know what that meant at the time, even though I went to church every week. I just went to a different church than he went to and and just didn't really connect with what he was saying. It was more about the way he was living, and I noticed that even though his circumstances in his life didn't change, something on the inside changed. Peace came into his life. Well, anyways, um it was April 29th, 1990. We were sitting at Liberty's Pizza in Wayland, Massachusetts, and we're having dinner. We we had pizzas up there all through our childhood. Uh, it was like the local hangout. And he said, Oh, I gotta get going. I gotta get to church. Now, I grew up where if I went to church with my grandmother on Saturday night or went to church on Sunday morning with my parents, one or the other, never both, because I was just under the understanding that you just had to go once. Um, I don't know where that came from, but that's what was in my head. I didn't understand why my friend was going to church on a Sunday night when I knew he had already gone that morning. So I said, could I go with you? Why did I ask him if I could go with him? It's because of what I noticed in his life. Here we are, we're teenagers. For those of you who you know struggle with uh anxiety, depression, frustration, like I said, no patience. Um, maybe you could relate. Like when I saw that a 17-year-old guy, tough guy too, like not a pushover, like very strong young man, uh, had this piece. I wanted to see where he is getting this piece. So I went to church that night, and there was an evangelist from Bangor, Maine. I didn't even know what an evangelist was, but he was traveling, sharing uh the gospel, sharing sermons uh across the world, and he happened to be in my town, Wayland, Mass. Again, not the church I grew up in, different church. So it was a Wellesley Park Assembly of God, for anybody who's wondering. Amazing church. So I walk in, and the first thing I see is that there's a drummer. In my church, there was a pipe organ, which today at 53 years old, I think is pretty cool. A pipe organ's an amazing uh musical instrument. But at 17 years old, it it didn't really play the kind of music that I enjoyed. So seeing a drummer and then an electric guitar player with hair halfway down his back and playing, you know, a really cool guitar and with a great amp behind him, I thought, wow, this is different. So, anyways, that was the first thing that got my attention. But the thing that really got my attention is when the evangelist got up to speak, he opened the Bible and he just made it come alive. He spoke right to me. I was hanging on his every word. Now, I again I went to church every week and I didn't really pay attention because I just wasn't excited about whatever was being taught. And that's on me. I mean, I'm just saying, like it didn't connect with me, and that's on me. So at the end of that incredible sermon, uh, he said, if you want to get your life right with with God and have a personal relationship with Jesus, meet me down here. I'd love to pray for you. And I got up and I walked right down there, and my life was changed again, April 29th, 1990. Didn't mean I had all the answers. I had a lot of questions, but something came into my heart that surpassed my understanding. It was a piece. Well, I kept going and kept getting little bits of information and understanding, and uh I still uh was confused a lot when reading the Bible. So someone said, Well, you gotta go get a study Bible, and I had never heard that term before, so I said, What's a study Bible? I said, I'll help you. So here it is. This is my first study Bible. I don't know if you could see if it's in focus, but anyways, the Quest Study Bible. Um, and it's been duct taped uh a number of times, it keeps falling apart. Please don't judge me on my Bible, it it is in need of a new repair. Um, but uh someone said later in life, and it stuck with me, they said if you see someone, their Bible's falling apart, it probably means that their life is not. I could testify to the truth of that. I've been married for 30 years. I have raised four amazing children, I've been a pastor for 27 years. I'm very grateful for the life in which God has helped me to um create alongside Him. But it was good men and women of faith uh as mentors around me that I sought out, uh, and I encourage you to do the same. Get in a good Bible-believing preaching church and get yourself a good study Bible and go to work with it. I was, again, frustrated with how my life was going. And, you know, when you're 17 years old, junior in high school, you feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. Uh and I still have a big heart for young people because I remember what that felt like. Uh, a lot of adults just didn't um maybe know what the right thing to say was. That's why I'm so grateful for youth ministers and youth leaders. God bless you for the work you do. It's important. Uh, I'm gonna take a little side note. I'm gonna give you a couple facts. I dug up. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 19.5 million children, more than one in four, live without a father in the home. That's that's hard to imagine. Think about that for a moment. I mean, that might be you. You might be like, yeah, I know that statistic. Um, but they are four times greater, four times greater uh at the risk of living in poverty, seven times more likely to become pregnant as a teenager, which is just as a teenager, uh you think uh you can handle stuff, you know, it that's that's hard. That's really, really difficult to have a child when you're a teenager. Uh we're talking, you know, this is Father's Day when I'm recording this. I I've seen a lot of young uh parents do a great job, but it's just it's just it's just really hard when you're that young, is what I'm saying. It's never easy, but it's easier when you're a little bit older. Two times more likely to drop out of high school. And the reality is that a lot of them feel like there is no hope. So why try to you know build a great life? They feel like they've already failed as a teenager, which is so not not the real truth. So I look to the Bible, my study Bible here, and uh I'm reminded of what God spoke to Jeremiah. Jeremiah is a is a prophet in the Old Testament, and this is out of Jeremiah chapter 18. And I love reading and thinking about me being there, putting myself in the story. I encourage you. If you've ever found that studying the Bible, reading the Bible, hearing sermons is tough to pay attention to, it's confusing. Try putting yourself in the story. I'm a visual learner, so let's go down to the potter's house in Jeremiah chapter 18. This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, from God. Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you a message. So, right there, there is an offer on the table. Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you a message. What if you don't go down to the potter's house? God wants you to take action. And that's a truth that is almost always the reality of our lives. Will God answer our prayers? I think he answers them in three ways. Uh yes, no, and not right now. But my point is that oftentimes a young believer, I'll say, somebody, somebody young in the faith, they often are hoping that God's going to answer just their prayers. Oftentimes God has something to say to you, but it requires action. Almost all through my life, God has answered my prayers, but it involved me taking steps of true faith and being obedient. So he says, Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message. So I went down to the potter's house and I saw him working on the wheel. So imagine you or Jeremiah, you go down to the potter's house, and what's he doing? He's got a wheel, he's spinning some clay around, he's got his hands around that clay. He's trying to make, let's say, a pot or a bowl or whatever he's making. And it says here, but the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands. What does that mean? It means it wasn't perfect. There was uh a need to redo it. And it says, so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. What I get from that, from myself, is that my life needed to be reshaped by God. I needed to invite God into my life, give him my heart, give him uh access, because we have free will, we can keep him out if we choose to, give him access to be able to come into my life, heal some things that needed to be healed, help me to refocus and fix my attitude. I don't know how else to say it. I mean, a lot of life is your attitude. I had a bad attitude, and God showed me that He loved me, He showed me grace. I didn't have to do anything to earn it other than just say, God, I I want you to be Lord of my life. And and and I gave him access to that. I I gave him full permission to come in and help me. So I resonate with this story. Now, if I flip over to Jeremiah 29, 11, this is another portion of scripture where he's speaking to uh Jeremiah. And again, I'm putting myself in the story so I could see that God is able to speak life into you and myself, because it says in the scriptures, he has no favorites. In other words, I'm I'm not his favorite. He loves me, but he also loves you. So in Jeremiah 29, 11, he's speaking to Jeremiah, but I'm like, if he could speak that to Jeremiah, I bet he feels the same way about me. And I believe he feels the same way about you. Well, you may ask, if you've never heard this before, what what is that? Let's see. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart. I believe God has a great plan for your life. Nobody's a mistake. No matter what anybody told you, you were born on purpose. God made that happen. And it's a miracle. I think every person's a walking, living, breathing miracle. When you really think about it, it's amazing. And so I believe he has a great plan for you. But like I said, you have free will to live whatever life you you know you you do. And I and I'm very aware, like I read you the stats about growing up in a home without a father. One, it's common, two, it's hard. But there are a lot of people who have incredible stories of how they accepted God as their father and were able to then straighten things out in their life and day after day after day, year after year, build an incredible life. I believe that God can help you do that. A little bit more, talking about the father who understands. God understands your situation, but He is, again, not a uh a puppeteer. There's no strings attached to you and God. It's about a spiritual thing where you connect with him through talking to him, through listening to him. And yeah, it most likely won't be audible. I I never put any uh, you know, I don't want to say it's impossible. Most of the time, he will make an impression on your heart. I believe he will give you the spirit, the Holy Spirit, and he will help guide you through that, through the scriptures and through prayer. So the father who understands, he's one that wants to be involved and and help you with your overall well-being. I believe that God has helped me, even though, like I said, I have a great earthly father, God helped me in ways that were supernatural. He helped me in ways when I was you know many miles away from home, he was still there. And I'm gonna read to you, let's see here. John chapter 1, verse 9. I don't want to lose you because the first part here, when I hear this, it's a little I really got to pay attention to it, even when I read it for the third time today. The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He came into the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, and this is the beautiful part talking about Jesus, he gave the right to become children of God. My relationship with God is that I believed in him. That preacher from Bangor Main just preached so clearly that I was like, Well, I'd have to be a fool not to believe this truth. I accepted him, and all of a sudden I felt like I was a true child of God. And again, I'm no one special, so you can have this same kind of access that I received. Then it says, again, this is in uh the Gospel of John, chapter one, they are reborn, not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. I was reborn, born again. And the I had to, that's why I told you the date, April 29th, 1990. I had a date in my life when the past was the past and I was looking forward. It's like when you're driving in a car, you got a big old windshield out there and a little rear view mirror. Now, the rear view mirror is important. You don't want to make the same mistakes that you made in the past. So you can look into the rearview mirror of your life and say, I remember that. I'm not going to do that again. But that's no way to live where we're constantly staring or thinking about the past. You got to get over the past and say, I'm I'm looking through the big windshield of life. There's a lot of beautiful things out there that I could participate in. Good, good things that God has provided for us. And I don't want to lose out because I'm so focused on that little but powerful rearview mirror. And I believe God, He is an involved father to those that commit to Him. If I want to have a relationship with my father or a friend, uh, I need to spend some time with that person. I need to not only talk to them, but I need to open my ears and shut my mouth and listen to them. And that's how you get to know people. You spend time. And I always encourage people, especially when you're trying to really get to know someone, don't do most of the talking. Ask creative questions to help people uh open up. It'll be a breath of fresh air because most people are so about themselves. And that's really the the lowest level of living when it's all about you. That's yeah, that was a life lesson that uh uh I learned, thankfully, in my 20s, that if you really want to have a life of purpose, you've got to make time and care, really care about other people. Um, so God, He wants to get involved, He wants to commit Himself to you, but we have to commit ourselves to Him. John chapter 1, verse 14. The word became uh sorry, the Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And then it goes on to say, From his abundance, we have received one gracious blessing after another. God wants to bless you. Now, there are still going to be days that are going to be challenging because we live in a world that is often got challenges. That's just the reality of it. But a relationship with God, a a true understanding that Jesus came into this world to be an example, to help us, to ultimately save us, and to then equip us and walk with us, changed my life. So on this Father's Day, my prayers that you will be open and invite God to be your Father, like I did. I'll read to you um that part I believe I read in the beginning, John chapter 8, verse 12. Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to live in darkness because you will have the light that leads to life. My prayer is that you invite God to be Lord of your life, that you will pray for God to help bring other people around you. But you can't always depend on people doing the right thing. You got to seek them out. Find yourself some good mentors. Start reading a good study Bible. And it's not this is this study, this Bible is not meant to be read like a regular book. It's 66 books. It's not like, oh, I finished the book. No, this is something that we read over and over to allow the the freshness of what is spoken in here to nourish us and to help us solve problems and think bigger. Amen. All right. Well, if you got anything out of this, I you know, I pray that you um just take it, run with it, and do the very best you can and reach out if you need anything. My website is elevationchapel.org, and there you can find out more about us. If you're ever in the Newton Mass uh area, we're just outside Boston. Please come and visit and let me know if I can help. I'm gonna say a quick prayer and uh thank you so much for your time. God, I pray for every person listening to this. God, that they would be inspired to take a step of faith. Not because they did a bunch of things to earn it. I pray, Lord, that they will realize what I realized was that I can earn it, that I can just accept the free gift of salvation, the grace, the love, and with that accept the beautiful extra bonus peace that surpasses understanding. I pray that you give them an abundance of peace today. Equip them with good people around them, a good church, good study Bible. And I pray, Lord, that they'd spend time with you each day in the word and in prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. Again, go to elevationchapel.org. And uh my name is Max. Hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you so much.