Forrest: Amen.
Forrest: Well, happy Father's Day to the dads in the house.
Forrest: Can we give it up for our dads right now?
Forrest: All over.
Forrest: And we're celebrating Father's Day today.
Forrest: This week we're also celebrating Juneteenth, the uh that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States on Wednesday, and we're thankful for that.
Forrest: And then the next day, we're gonna be across the street at Juniper Hills for the longest day of play.
Forrest: I'm excited about us connecting with hundreds of families and kids.
Forrest: And so we'd love for you to be there uh on Thursday evening for longest day of play.
Forrest: And I'm uh grateful today to get to share with you and speak.
Forrest: This is the last week of Family Feud as we're coming to a conclusion on Father's Day, and this is uh my first swing at a Father's Day message in the life of Multiply Church.
Forrest: Um I am now a father of almost five years.
Forrest: So I got a lot figured out.
Forrest: No, I've got I've got a lot more to get figured out.
Forrest: But one thing that I do have figured out is the dad bond.
Forrest: No, no, no, no.
Forrest: It's a father figure is what it is.
Forrest: And I uh am blessed, even though um I uh haven't been a dad for too long.
Forrest: I have had some incredible father figures in my life, including my own dad, who I've told you before some about my dad, the fact that he grew up without his father.
Forrest: His dad, my grandfather, took his own life when my dad was very young.
Forrest: And my dad did the hard work of learning to be a father, a great dad, and did an amazing job of learning over the years and figuring out how to be a father, even in the absence of his own father.
Forrest: And also I have an incredible father figure in my father-in-law, who is uh brilliant engineer, master woodworker.
Forrest: He's like a man's man, a man of integrity.
Forrest: He's just got a Job-like testimony from the scripture.
Forrest: He's gone through two brain tumors.
Forrest: Uh, he's lost everything and regained it back in business and now tenfold.
Forrest: He's incredible fathers there in my life, is what I'm trying to tell you.
Forrest: Now, they are also immune to uh the dad moments that happen every once in a while.
Forrest: Uh, there's some uh I grew up around some manly men, and I think one of the manliest men over in Shelby County was this guy named Aaron Reed.
Forrest: Aaron's still around.
Forrest: Aaron was uh a uh sniper, he was a Navy SEAL sniper, and he actually, when we were when I was in high school, he came to school and spoke to us, and now he's been a business owner in town for a long time and a public figure.
Forrest: And my father-in-law was at an event last year where Aaron was there too, and my father-in-law knows of him, uh, knows his story.
Forrest: Kind of a lot of people know Aaron.
Forrest: And so they were outdoors at this event, and uh my father-in-law saw Aaron from afar, and he walked up to him, and he was trying to remember who he was, and he couldn't remember his name, and he just said, You're, you're, you're and just grunted at him, just a series of grunts, manly man grunts, and Aaron was like, Yeah, I'm Aaron Raid.
Forrest: Yeah, I'm I'm uh that's who I he just knew exactly.
Forrest: Uh obviously, we uh uh have those dad moments that's from time to time, but here's the thing: so oftentimes, even now in culture in in life, dads end up being the butt of the joke.
Forrest: There's kind of like this perception now, this caricature of what a dad is that you'll see on TV.
Forrest: And uh I say it's kind of the dumb dad mentality.
Forrest: The brute, the guy that's you know, uh sitting in the recliner, drinking a beer, completely checked out, saying silly dad jokes, the buffoon.
Forrest: Um, and we all love a good dad joke every once in a while.
Forrest: We got some master dad joke tellers in this church.
Forrest: Shout out Carl, Zach, and Graham.
Forrest: Uh, those guys are very good at the dad joke.
Forrest: And some of the things, uh, some of the stereotypes do ring true.
Forrest: Like, how in the world did most or all of our dads have this shoe, the Nike monarch sneaker?
Forrest: I don't know how that became like the uniform of dads, but somehow it did.
Forrest: If you still have those on, that means you're a great dad today.
Forrest: Uh and I I wonder today, I wonder today, as you reflect and think about your dad, what did you get from your dad?
Forrest: Was it security?
Forrest: College?
Forrest: Nothing?
Forrest: Heartbreak?
Forrest: What do you wish he had given you?
Forrest: See, a lot of times these fatherhood and father's days message ended up kind of looking like this.
Forrest: It goes like this.
Forrest: Dads, you're not doing a good job.
Forrest: You gotta man up.
Forrest: And these messages end up being just filled with guilt.
Forrest: Like a big long sermon of guilt trip.
Forrest: But that's not what I'm gonna do today.
Forrest: There'll be time in years to come to do that.
Forrest: But today, what I want to share with and speak about and look at the scripture and encourage the dads in the room is that you are gifted.
Forrest: This isn't a guilt trip today.
Forrest: This is to talk about how you are gifted.
Forrest: And if you're not a dad in the room today, you can also receive this word and think about what that person is that maybe you want to find that father figure for your family, for your kids, for your life.
Forrest: And what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a look at this dysfunctional family, and we're coming to the very end of this long few weeks of talking about Jacob and his dysfunctional family, and we're ending at the very end of Jacob's life in his last words before he dies.
Forrest: His final words.
Forrest: And if you've been tracking along with us over the last few weeks, you know the roller coaster ride that Jacob has been on as this deceiver, this liar, this person with no integrity, to then be transformed by God and given a new name of Israel, to be one that has wrestled with God, that's seen God face to face, and this redemptive arc that's happened through Jacob's life.
Forrest: And where we're gonna enter into the story is in this moment of blessing and cursing.
Forrest: And the final words of Jacob, and what he uses this for, is for one of the first times in the Old Testament that God uses a human to bring a prophetic message.
Forrest: A prophetic message of the future as he intentionally blesses or holds back the blessings from his 12 sons.
Forrest: And he's speaking over them, and it's a continuation of what we've talked about from the very beginning of this series of talking about this blessing.
Forrest: This the Hebrew word barek, which means to bless, which was given to us all the way back in the first chapter of the Bible in Genesis chapter 1, where God looks at humanity and he says, Be fruitful and multiply.
Forrest: And that we received this barek, this blessing that is the same Hebrew word that's used in this narrative story of Jacob's life, even in this portion where he is blessing his sons, he's imparting to them this barek, this blessing.
Forrest: We also know that in Genesis chapter 3, after Adam and Eve made the decision to sin, that the brokenness and the curse of sin entered into the world.
Forrest: The reason why we have sin today, the reason why nobody in this room is perfect, including myself.
Forrest: The reason why we have a fallen world that is needing the redemption and the restoration of Christ and the rescue mission that God put into play, that all of us will be redeemed and restored one day.
Forrest: And Jacob is imparting to this to his sons this blessing, and he tells specifically to Joseph, his son, that we're gonna see him impart a double portion to.
Forrest: In Genesis 48, he looks at Joseph, and then then Israel.
Forrest: I love he uses his new name, then Israel said to Joseph, I'm about to die.
Forrest: But God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers.
Forrest: Now let me give you just a quick bio of Joseph.
Forrest: So Jacob has 12 sons.
Forrest: One of them is Joseph.
Forrest: We've talked about Joseph's story a number of times here at our church.
Forrest: So we're talking about Joseph, the son of Jacob.
Forrest: This is not Joseph and Mary Joseph.
Forrest: This is Old Testament Joseph.
Forrest: This is a different Joseph than the one in the New Testament, just catching you up.
Forrest: And the the quick bio of Joseph's life is that he was one of the younger sons of the twelve, and he was very gifted by God.
Forrest: He was gifted in the ability to interpret dreams.
Forrest: And this led to his other brothers being jealous of him, and he being the favorite of Jacob's sons, even so much to that Jacob gave him this special coat of many colors.
Forrest: Anybody heard of that when you're in, you know, uh VBS or whatever?
Forrest: Um, he gives them the coat of many colors, and out of their jealousy, the brothers make a plan that they're going to murder and kill their brother that they cannot stand.
Forrest: And at the last moment they decide we're not going to murder him, instead, we're going to sell him into slavery.
Forrest: So they sell Joseph into slavery, even though he's done nothing wrong.
Forrest: And he becomes a slave in Potiphar's house, and Potiphar's wife wants him, desires him, attempts to sexually assault him, and falsely accuses him of rape, and he's sent to prison for decades.
Forrest: And while he's in prison, because of his integrity, because of his closeness with the Lord, he rises in the ranks to be the head prisoner in the prison, administration, and ultimately leads to an opportunity for him to interpret a dream for someone who's in the royal court and that he's remembered, and then he ends up going before the king and interpreting a dream that nobody else could interpret, and in doing so, he interpreted correctly, and in doing so, he's given a portion and a princehood of being the second in command of all of Egypt.
Forrest: He's had this amazing arc of his life, and very dissimilar to Jacob, Joseph, through all of the stories that we see of Joseph's life, he chooses the right path.
Forrest: He doesn't lie, he doesn't steal, he doesn't connive.
Forrest: He walks closely with God, and even through incredible trial and suffering and circumstances, God continues to be with him and bless him all along the way.
Forrest: And in the final words that Jacob speaks over Joseph, after all of that has happened in Joseph's life, and his family's been restored, their story's been redeemed, and then Jacob speaks these words over Joseph.
Forrest: He says, Joseph is a fruitful vine.
Forrest: A fruitful vine near a spring.
Forrest: Whose branches climb over a wall.
Forrest: With bitterness, archers attack him.
Forrest: They shot at him with hostility, but his bow remains steady.
Forrest: His strong arms stayed limber because of the hand of the mighty one of Jacob.
Forrest: Because of the shepherd, because of the rock of Israel, because of your father's God who helps you, because of the Almighty who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings from deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb.
Forrest: Your father's blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills.
Forrest: Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.
Forrest: Jacob speaks this Barak.
Forrest: This passing on of the blessing over his son.
Forrest: And just to recap for a second, in the first couple verses there, 22 and 23, it's like a recap of Joseph's life.
Forrest: It says that Joseph is this fruit, he's this fruitful vine.
Forrest: That he's near a spring, that his branches grow up over the wall, that he has this fruitful life, but with bitterness, archers attack him with hostility, which is the story of Joseph's whole life, just wrapped up in two verses, which is he's fruitful, he's living a life passionately following and walking with God, all while his enemies are shooting arrows at him, falsely imprisoned, accused of rape, sold into slavery, as the arrows flew at him, and then the scripture and this blessing, it shifts to give God's response in the blessing in verse 24 and 25, and it says, But it's the Almighty whose hand has overlaid on Joseph as he pulls back the bowstrings.
Forrest: The Almighty One, the mighty one of God, of Jacob, his father.
Forrest: And then verse 26, we see five names of God listed and giving credit to the blessing that's coming from the Father.
Forrest: And if you look at these names and how God is naming himself, he calls himself the mighty one of Jacob, the shepherd, the rock of Israel, also a name for Jacob.
Forrest: He says, Because of your father's God.
Forrest: And he's identifying himself with Jacob and with the blessing and with this covenant that was made with his family that's passing through from Jacob to Joseph.
Forrest: And he even even goes beyond Joseph because the chapter of four, Jacob actually also blesses Joseph's sons.
Forrest: And he lays hands on them.
Forrest: And ironically, he blesses the younger son, just like he was.
Forrest: And he speaks these words over Jacob's now, his lineage, his line, his sons, and he says this in Genesis 48:15.
Forrest: Then he blessed Joseph and said, May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully.
Forrest: The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the angel who has delivered me from all harm, may he bless these boys.
Forrest: May they be called by my name and the names of my father, fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly on the earth.
Forrest: So what does this mean for us?
Forrest: Well, I'll ask you this question.
Forrest: What's the blessing that we should get from a good father?
Forrest: If we're gonna have good men and good fathers who are in our lives, and us walking out and pursuing God, and for us to be a good father and a good dad, what should that blessing be?
Forrest: What should it look like?
Forrest: Well, what we're gonna see from the blessing that was given to Jacob is that this blessing that should be given from a good father should be this blessing to produce, to protect, and provide.
Forrest: In Genesis 28, way back in Genesis 28, when when God is beginning this blessed relationship with Jacob, he speaks these words over him in verse 12.
Forrest: And this is a story about Jacob that we hadn't, we we kind of skipped over as we went through his life, but this moment where Jacob is dreaming and he sees this ladder coming from heaven, and it's called Jacob's ladder, if you've heard of this famous story.
Forrest: And he had a dream in which he saw a stairway rising on the earth and the top reaching to heaven, and the angel of God were ascending and descending on it.
Forrest: Then above it stood the Lord, and he said, I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.
Forrest: Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and they will spread out the for the west to the east, to the north and to the south.
Forrest: All peoples on the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
Forrest: I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go.
Forrest: And I will bring you back to this land.
Forrest: And I will not leave you until I've done what I've promised to you.
Forrest: This blessing.
Forrest: This good covenant that God continues to Jacob.
Forrest: It shows us a couple of things of what a good father should be giving as a blessing to their children.
Forrest: And the first of this is a perspective, a heavenly perspective.
Forrest: God speaks to Jacob and he tells him, I'm coming to you, and I'm coming to you from heaven above, and I'm coming to you through the line of your family, and I'm telling you who you are.
Forrest: And at this point, when God speaks this blessing over him, Jacob is still a liar, a stealer, a conniver, a deceitful person.
Forrest: He's a trickster, and God is speaking over him the perspective of what God knows that he will be and will be because of not who Jacob is, because of God's redemptive, powerful work.
Forrest: And he gives a perspective to him.
Forrest: I was talking to a young lady this week in her 20s, and she has a great father, but I asked her this question: what's something other than money that you wish that your dad would have given you?
Forrest: And you know what her answer was?
Forrest: More quality time.
Forrest: And she had a great dad, a dad who was around, he was at all the events and the sporting events, and that's more than a lot of us can say.
Forrest: She had a great dad, but I asked her, what more, what could your dad have given you?
Forrest: And she said, quality time.
Forrest: And what she meant, and as we talked further, what she said is this is that presence doesn't mean present.
Forrest: Because just because you're around, just because you're there, doesn't mean that you're not distracted on your phone.
Forrest: Doesn't mean that you're distracted on work calls, that you're distracted with what's going on in your life, and even though you are physically present, you may not actually be present.
Forrest: Is anybody hearing me?
Forrest: And so for us dads, we're not gonna be the modern family dad that's sitting in the in the in the recliner and that we're just checked out mentally, spiritually, but instead that we're going to be active in our children's lives and we're gonna be giving them perspective.
Forrest: That's what she said.
Forrest: She said, now that I'm an adult, she said, I wish that my dad, who had bared this load of this selfless role for all of my childhood, I wish that he would have told me and taught to me more about his life.
Forrest: More about his experiences, more about connecting what happened in his life to her life in vulnerability and openness.
Forrest: To have this father figure that would give perspective.
Forrest: See, dads, I know that we have this feeling that we always need to be on the high horse.
Forrest: But it's also okay as your children grow older, to their teenage years, that they know that you have walked through things and how God has showed up for you in your life that He'll show up for them as well.
Forrest: Dad, you're not perfect.
Forrest: You're not gonna be perfect.
Forrest: And ultimately, your family, they know that you're not perfect, but you know the one who is, and the one that you can point them to and share with them how the gospel has changed you.
Forrest: The second thing that we learn from this that a good father gives to his children is what God gives to Jacob in saying that I'm going to bless you, I'm going to expand you, I'm going to give you dominion, I'm going to give you land, I'm going to give you descendants, and I am going to prosper you.
Forrest: And so we as fathers give to our children what we should give to them is prosperity.
Forrest: If you remember what Jacob says about Joseph in that first line, he says, Joseph, you're a fruitful vine.
Forrest: You bear much fruit, you produce.
Forrest: But he's a fruitful vine that's connected to a spring.
Forrest: Who's the spring?
Forrest: The Almighty Hand of God.
Forrest: You're fruitful because you're walking with the one who will help you to bear fruit.
Forrest: I am the vine, you are the branches.
Forrest: Apart from me, we cannot do anything.
Forrest: Jesus tells us that we should be connected to the vine, and in doing so, that we should then from the life that we have, that we should be sharing in this fruitfulness of our lives that we're producing.
Forrest: That doesn't necessarily mean wealthy.
Forrest: We'll talk about that in a minute.
Forrest: But what I do want to tell you, fathers, today is a verse that you probably have never heard.
Forrest: But but I learned it years ago, and it is really stuck in my mind and my heart, and it's Proverbs 13, 22, and it says this very simply and plainly.
Forrest: Listen to me.
Forrest: A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children.
Forrest: A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's, to his children's.
Forrest: Children.
Forrest: That inheritance isn't always money, is it?
Forrest: That inheritance is always land or isn't property or isn't wealth, but a prosperity of having a fruitful life connected with the true vine of Jesus that you are then imparting to your children and your descendants.
Forrest: And as you do that, both physically and spiritually, there is a call for us to give protection to those that are under our leadership.
Forrest: And the protection that I'm talking about is obviously a physical protection, but farther than that, it's a spiritual protection.
Forrest: That we as fathers, that we're protecting the innocence of our children.
Forrest: That we're active and knowing what content they're consuming.
Forrest: What are they learning?
Forrest: Who are the influencers and teachers in their life?
Forrest: Who are their friends?
Forrest: Because here's the thing.
Forrest: All around your children, all of the time, are going to be lies.
Forrest: That they're going to be tempted to believe.
Forrest: Anyone hear me today?
Forrest: They're going to be constantly bombarded by lies from the world about what their worst should be, how they should live, how things that it should look like for them to live a life that's prosperous, even for them to live a good life that's not going to be in alignment with God's word and with what He tells us what is going to prosper and what's going to make us whole and redeem us.
Forrest: So for us as father figures, that we need to be active in knowing what the influences are, what the lies that are being believed, and be able to speak the truth into those lies.
Forrest: They say that at some point around the age 14 or 15, you as a parent that you no longer become the primary influence in your child's life, but they're friends.
Forrest: And I think that was a few years ago.
Forrest: So I imagine that's even younger than that time now.
Forrest: It's probably 13 or so that your voice ends up being diminished to what the friends around them are telling them of what is true and what is right and what they should believe.
Forrest: And for us as dads, we should be stepping in to protect the innocence of our children until they're out of our care.
Forrest: Helping to show them the way.
Forrest: Tell them the way.
Forrest: Encourage them from how God has restored and redeemed our lives.
Forrest: And lastly, what we should do is God has done and what He did to and gave to Joseph.
Forrest: Or gave to Jacob and giving to Joseph.
Forrest: He says that I'm going to be with you.
Forrest: I'm going to watch over you.
Forrest: Wherever it is that you go.
Forrest: And I'm not going to leave you until I've done what I've promised.
Forrest: And in the same way, we should be giving to our kids provision.
Forrest: That we're not going to leave until we've done what we promised.
Forrest: I was having a conversation with a, I met a Christian businessman this week, and we were having a conversation about what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus in the business world.
Forrest: And he told me about a time in his life where he got to hearing about this group of businessmen that were down in Miami that was in the same industry and that they were really killing it and crushing it.
Forrest: All of them were making tons of money.
Forrest: And he was learning about this.
Forrest: And he said, You know what?
Forrest: I want that.
Forrest: What they've got right now, the success that they're experiencing, I want that.
Forrest: And so he went to Miami.
Forrest: He went to Miami to join up with this group of businessmen.
Forrest: And when he got there, what he learned and what he noticed was that their relationships were a wreck.
Forrest: That their drinking was out of control.
Forrest: And he quickly realized that their financial success didn't mean that they were blessed.
Forrest: See, rich doesn't always mean blessed, does it?
Forrest: Shout out to Toddy.
Forrest: Telling me about this time of his life.
Forrest: And as we had this conversation, it reminded me that as what we pursue of success in this world, that it should look like what we see from a father to a son.
Forrest: The blessing that's from God that should be given to his kids.
Forrest: I told you about my dad, and I have a great father.
Forrest: Great, uh great upbringing, not perfect, but he did a great job.
Forrest: And one of the most special moments that I ever had between me and my dad was just a few years ago.
Forrest: Actually, it was back in 2020.
Forrest: It was right before we were stepping out to do the work of planting multiply church.
Forrest: And this time they were living in Nashville, and it was at the end of their time living in Nashville, and I was down there visiting them, and my dad was having a conversation, and we were preparing, and Emily and I were preparing to uproot our life and to go on this journey of beginning to plant multiply, and we were preparing to move to Frankfurt and all.
Forrest: My dad was very in the mix of all these conversations and encouraging to me, and he made a very specific and intentional decision.
Forrest: That there in his home back in 2020, he called me into his room and he sat me down on a chair and he placed his hands on my head and he prayed a blessing over me.
Forrest: And I will never forget that moment.
Forrest: Because he didn't just pray for my desires or for his desires for me, but he prayed a blessing and prayed for God to accomplish the God-given desires that are in my life.
Forrest: I'll never forget that moment.
Forrest: Because in so many ways, my dad, even in adulthood, gave me a gift.
Forrest: Gave me a gift of imparting a blessing from God above.
Forrest: So many ways that we have been richly blessed by God.
Forrest: Not perfect, not without suffering, not without significant trials, not without significant valleys, not without significant challenges and hardships and heartache.
Forrest: But being truly blessed by the Lord because what he's given to us, that we are walking in his blessing and his riches.
Forrest: And in so many ways, my my dad intentionally placed his hands on my head and he blessed me for my future.
Forrest: And in the same ways, dads, the gifts that we have received from God above, we have the responsibility, we have the ability to then impart them onto our kids, and that we would give them the gifts that God has given you.
Forrest: So as you think about the gifts that God has given to you, and who he is as a heavenly father, you then can gift those same things to your children by walking with him, by loving him, by staying committed to him, by stewarding your family, your finances well, by encouraging them, by helping them to expand their territories, being a good father this week in the life of our church, after 1,124 days, Zach and Amy Tipton got to adopt their now son, Dustin Tipton.
Forrest: This last Tuesday.
Forrest: After 1,124 days of loving, of caring, of walking this out.
Forrest: Now that Dustin now has a father figure and a great dad in Zach, doesn't he?
Forrest: If you know him, you know.
Forrest: Dustin is truly blessed to have his father figure now in his life that he didn't have before.
Forrest: And so, dads, as you're walking out this promise and providing for your family and accomplishing your goals, be contented.
Forrest: Be contented in what God deems success versus what the world tells you is success.
Forrest: Be filled with the riches of life and the fulfillment that only comes from God, not comparison to other men.
Forrest: But instead, walk out this life in character, in hard work, in the earning of receiving of respect, being patient with your kids, and living a life that you can give an inheritance to your children's children.
Forrest: So here's what I'm gonna do to close.
Forrest: I'm way late.
Forrest: I didn't realize.
Forrest: But I'm gonna close in this way.
Forrest: I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna symbolically have a special blessing for father.
Forrest: So if you're a dad in the room, would you stand up?
Forrest: And everybody else remain seated.
Forrest: And if you're sitting close to a dad or stepdad or a bonus dad or a father figure, would you just extend the hand, stay seated, and extend the hand towards whoever's close to you as I'm gonna pray this prayer blessing over them.
Forrest: So extend the hand towards someone who's close to you, who's standing right now, and I'm gonna pray this over you.
Forrest: This is a prayer for dads.
Forrest: Heavenly Father, I present every father figure in this place to you for a special blessing.
Forrest: I pray that as they work hard and sacrifice for their families, that you will honor them.
Forrest: I pray that they will accomplish God-giving goals and dreams, make them strong in the face of temptation, make them decisive, fully content with your portion.
Forrest: I pray that they would provide for their families and overflow for generations.
Forrest: Lord, I pray wisdom for them.
Forrest: You know the challenges and decisions that are required daily, you know the pressures they experience as they navigate through life.
Forrest: Give them wisdom in every arena.
Forrest: Let them be wise with relationships, wise with career, wise with money, wise with calling, wise in action.
Forrest: But the wisdom you give them be evident to all and completely recognized by their children.
Forrest: Let your wisdom be present in every choice they make, so their life will be pleasing to you.
Forrest: In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and everybody said, Amen.