Father’s Day Reflection On Closeness With God

On this Father’s Day, we talk about drawing near to our Heavenly Father. No matter what our earthly fathers were like, God is not distant. He invites us into closeness, protection, provision, and peace that flows from relationship, not striving. We look at Jesus as the perfect example of intimacy with the Father and how we can live in that same nearness every day. If you’ve been hurt or felt rejected, God wants to heal those places and draw you closer to Him.

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Transcript

Father’s Day Blessing And Honor

SPEAKER_01 0:01

I just want to say happy Father's Day. It is Father's Day. I'm riding pretty high today because our daughter was texting me this morning saying, kind, I love you. And I said, I'm good. I'm good today because see, Wednesday was Nolan, our six-year-old grandson's birthday. He turned six. And and uh anyway, my wife, we were having coffee this morning. She got me up earlier than normal because she had she had to be at work early, early this morning. So anyway, but we're enjoying some time together. And and she says, Nolan says that Papa that you look like you're about 30 years old. I said, All righty then. So my daughter was texting us, texting me, and I said, I'm in a good place right now. Tavana just told me that Nolan says I look about 30, so I'm I'm doing all right today. Hallelujah. So to every dad here and everywhere, good dad, bad dad, absentee dad, never knew your dad. We honor dads, we honor fathers. God doesn't say honor your father and mother when they are awesome and godly, does he? Nope. It's just a command to do it, and a promise is attached that it may go well with you and you may enjoy a long life on the earth. Or in the Hebrew, actually, he said, in the land I have given you. And we know that we've come into a great land of promises. Hallelujah. So just to be wise, I would say do it. Just trust God, He's faithful. And just a side note, just to be sure, God doesn't expect, because I'm telling people to honor their father and mother, even if they're not good fathers and mothers. And I mean it. And God meant it. But God doesn't expect anyone to be subjected to ungodly abuse or criminal behavior. It's sad that I have to throw this in here for free. But so boundaries are sometimes necessary. I don't know who this might be for, but they should be for protective measures for you and your family andor your children, not as punishment or unforgiveness when a father wants that relationship and is no threat. We'll just leave that right there for the hearer to pray about, and God will give the increase of the understanding. Amen.

The Heavenly Father’s Perfect Love

SPEAKER_01 3:41

But today I want to I want to lift up our eyes higher and point us to the greatest father of all. Our heavenly Father. Hallelujah. So this is for everybody because this is Father's Day, and we're here to celebrate our Heavenly Father. Praise God. He is better than the best earthly father you could ever have. And he loves you with a perfect, unending love. He loves us with the agape, unconditional, limitless love that comes only from him. Now he would like, he would love for earthly fathers to be like him in this. Yes? To not be absentee dads, to not be neglectful dads or distant, because when you have a loving earthly father, an attentive earthly father, it makes it easier to believe there is a father in heaven who truly loves you. That's why the enemy comes so hard against the family. That's why he has governments pay people to stay unmarried and not to have a father in the home. That's the devil. You see, and God wants you to know how much he loves you. That perfect love, and he wants you to be close to him in every way. Why? Because he desires a relationship with you and to care for you and to protect you and to provide for you spiritually, physically, emotionally, in every way. The heart of the father for all of us is closeness. Closeness. That's the word that he's given me.

Joseph And Goshen Drawing Near

SPEAKER_01 6:21

We all familiar with the story of Joseph, how he was betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery, falsely accused, forgotten in prison, and yet through it all, God called him prosperous, didn't he? God raised him up to become the second most powerful man in all of Egypt, the most powerful nation in the world at the time, didn't he? Years later, during a terrible famine, Joseph's brothers, if you recall, they came to Egypt for food, didn't they? They didn't know that the man in charge was the brother that they had sold years earlier. And in an incredible moment of mercy and forgiveness and restoration, Joseph revealed himself to them, didn't he? And instead of seeking revenge, he brought the whole family, his father, his brothers, all of their relatives out of the famine and settled them in the best land in Egypt called Goshen. Goshen. Write that down. G-O-S-H-E-N. Through Joseph, we see a beautiful picture of the Father's heart. You know how I love type in shadows anyway. The Old Testament, you can glean so much more sometimes than you can from the new. If you know how to read it through the new lenses, new covenant lenses of grace and truth, and that it all points to Jesus. Amen. Because Joseph is a type and shadow of Jesus. And Hebrews 1 3 says that Jesus is the express image of God the Father. Hello. Amen. So right here in Genesis chapter 45, Joseph brings his whole family to this place called Goshen. Genesis forty-five, verse 10. And he says, You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me. You and your children, and your children's children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. If you remember last time I ministered, I was say last week, but there was someone else. So the last message that I had for you, the word was better. Do you remember that? How he makes everything better. Jesus makes everything better. Jesus has provided a better covenant with better promises, and he just makes everything better. Well, in an effort to move into the reality of the better covenant and to reap the benefits for you and for others in this life. This week, the word from God that He's given me is closeness, closeness, nearness, presence. Because there's a better covenant available for two thousand years now. Amen. So all the better has been there, right? And even most of many of our lives, the better has always been available, right? But we don't always benefit from the better, not having taken advantage of the things that the Lord has provided by grace through faith. Am I wrong? So we need to come to know Him through this relationship that He's made available and enter into a closeness, a nearness, a presence with Him. You heard the term long distance relationships are difficult. Amen. Can I tell you the name Goshen means drawing near? Everything in the Bible has a meaning and a purpose. Joseph didn't just want to provide for his family from a distance. Joseph didn't want to just send them provision where they were. He wanted to bring them close to him. He wanted them close so he could protect them and provide for them and enjoy relationship with them. You see. You see where I'm going with this? This is exactly the heart of the Heavenly Father toward us. But he needs us close. Jesus is our perfect example. I think that's uh goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, as long as I have breath. Jesus is our perfect example of everything good, everything God. Not only can we look to him to see what our heavenly father is like, but we can look to him in his humanity to see his example for us of intimacy with the Father. Right? He's just better. Amen. And now we can study his life on earth, his earthly ministry. Because see, even John said, once we we saw Jesus after the flesh, we don't look at him that way anymore. You see what I'm saying? He was just like that for a time. He had set aside all of his godly privileges to be like us, to be our kinsman redeemer, etc. etc. But now he's back to being, he put it all back on. You see what I'm saying? When we see him again, he's not going to be a suffering savior, is he? A conquering king.

Jesus Shows Real Intimacy

SPEAKER_01 14:02

That might be one of the biggest problems in the church today. I might digress a little bit, but see, they come to they come to they're coming to Jesus in by the droves, and we want that. But a big mistake is to say, oh, he just loves you. He just loves you. And he does. I'm not saying that's wrong. But the problem is come as you are and stay that way if you want to. I think it's important that everyone know they're gonna stand in judgment before Jesus Christ one day. Even us. Thank God it won't be the white throne judgment unto perdition. Once you've been born again, but still, even still, every idle word we speak will be judged. Where's that gonna be? At the judgment seat of Christ, the Bima. It's a seat of rewards, but we'll be walking through, and everything in this life that's hay and stubble, that's worldly and not of God, is gonna burn up. And Paul said, some of you you'll make it, but you'll come through as one smelling like smoke. So we see this beautiful picture through Joseph, getting back to that of God's God's heart for us. And we're trying to enter in because it says it says this is something we have to endeavor to do, to struggle, to strive to enter the rest. We can't earn it, so there's no work of that sort. We gotta work to quit trying to earn it. We gotta work on our relationship, on that closeness that I'm talking about today. Because in a relationship, there's it's a two-way streak, right? I'm not telling you anything you don't know. Just looking for somebody to agree with me. I haven't seen anybody yet. Are you just soaking it all in? Okay, oh goodness. So Jesus is that perfect example, and we just look to him to see his life. When I want to see what it looks like to be close to God, for instance, since that's the word he gave me all week, and that's what I've been meditating on, focusing on. I walk outside, look at the trees, I see the birds, I see the flowers, I pull the weeds, I transplant to a larger pot. I look in the word, I pray in the spirit, I sing in the spirit, I pray in my known language. I say nothing, I get still. I'm learning from Jesus. Learning from Jesus. That's essential for us to be and to do and have all that God has for us and for everyone in our sphere of influence. Right? So Jesus didn't just teach us about the Father, he taught about the Father a lot, especially to those that were close to him. He showed us how to live in constant closeness to the Father. He said in John 5, 19, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. Jesus lived in constant communion, relationship, closeness with the Father. The Bible says that he often withdrew to lonely places to pray. Now that doesn't mean he went off to his dark place and got into depression and had to dig himself out. No, no, no. Now that kind of lonely. He was a busy man. He got off by himself, we would call it, to be rid of all the noise competing for his time and his attention. He craved to be alone with the father, to reboot, and to fellowship with the father. He was always talking about the father to everyone, especially, like I said, to those who were close to him. He was he was passionate about the father's love, wasn't he? That's what I'm talking about today. And that love of the father compelled him to live a life to please him. And what we call the um, what do they call it on that last fateful night of his ministry? They call it the high peep, the high priestly prayer. Remember? Jesus prayed a lot that night. And John 17, which is, I love John 17. I love John 14 through 17 and all the ones before and after that. Oh, I just love it. I love how John had a revelation of the love of God for him and called himself the disciple whom Jesus loved five times in his own gospel. John 17, 21, in that prayer, Jesus said that they may all be one, speaking of his disciples, speaking of you and me, but that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us. Isn't that wonderful? Jesus didn't want us to have a distant, formal relationship with God, a far away God. He wants us to live in the same kind of intimacy and closeness that he shared with the Father, that he shares with the Father. And that relationship, that intimacy, that closeness is the one thing that matters most. It's the thing that matters most, Bill. Every day I live in this life with him, the more I realize what's important and what's not. When you see someone get promoted to heaven, and then you just see all the dumpsters and the trash cans and everything that just get taken away. And this is no one's fault or to blame, it's just the way it is. None of that stuff mattered. And this is all gonna pass away. Everything we see was created by things that we cannot see. So which one's more real? Which one's more important? It's the kingdom, isn't it, Larry? It can get confusing sometimes if we don't think about it and see the difference in our own lives of what might be good, but not God's best. Not what God has for us right then. At that time. You see what I'm saying? Picture of this.

Mary, Martha, And Right Priorities

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Um it's powerfully illustrated in the um in the home of Lazarus. Lazarus, Jesus' good friend, whom he raised from the dead. Remember Lazarus' sisters, Martha and Mary. Luke chapter 10, verse 38. Start there. I'm just gonna read a little bit. Now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. This was Bethany. I love Bethany. Jesus had real friends there. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house, and she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, this is after she complained that aren't you going to make her do anything? I'm doing everything so forth. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you're anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. And Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. So Martha was doing good things, yes. She wasn't only serving their guests and their family, which we should do, right, May? I look at May because she's a wonderful example of that servant's heart. But she was also serving the Lord himself. Praise God. But Jesus told Martha, Mary has chosen the better thing, sitting at his feet, listening to him, staying close to him. So should Martha not have served? I want you to think, that's why I'm pausing here. Should Martha just not have served? Let the food get cold? I mean, just gotta really kind of put yourself there sometimes, right? Just not even offer anybody anything to drink. No, that's not it. I submit to you that Jesus would have allowed time for that. At some point. But Martha's priorities were out of line. And that's the place we get. I would say more times than not. Well, I won't say it about you, I'll just say it about me. And whoever's watching online. Maybe they can hear it. Truth be known, more times than not, we have things a little out of line, a little out of order. If we're honest with ourselves and with God, just ask him, would be my suggestion. That's my suggestion about everything. I'm not trying to point you to me. See, I threw away most of the gifts that God gave me in my life, which were many, many, many. So I'm not saying it boastfully. I'm I'm ashamed of that. I tried to sabotage everything He ever tried to do for me. And even the gift that I have now, if there be whatever is left of it, I don't boast in those things. The gift will just point you to me without the anointing. So I crave the anointing because the gift with the anointing will point you to him. And I just trying to get you close to God. It's all about relationship. That's all that I care about. For myself and for you. Because I love you. Matthew 6, 33, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And then what? All these things. And what was he talking about? Don't worry about what you're going to eat or what you're going to drink, just like Martha that day, and she was taking care of things that were not needed and necessary, but God knows we need those things. He said, if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things will be added unto you. So Jesus instructs his followers to prioritize our spiritual lives over our material concerns, doesn't he? And by focusing on God's will first, believers are promised that he'll provide for our physical needs as well. Simple, easy peasy. The question is: do we believe that? There's the thing. There's the thing. I believe. Yeah, you believe. I believe too. Lord help my unbelief. Those disciples, we like to laugh and cut up about them and all that, but trust me, they had been out there casting out demons and healing the sick. They had seen some wonderful things. That's why they were surprised at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus came down and they said, Why couldn't we cast out this demon? Thing was throwing that boy around in the fire and all that. Epileptic, I believe. Why couldn't we cast him out? He said, Because of your unbelief. And you can boil it down to distractions and things and everything, but it all comes down to some level of unbelief. No matter how big the problem is, and I'm not saying they're not real, of course they are. How big the pain is, how big the need is, how big the I'm not saying those things aren't real. I prayed for too many of them. To not know that we're in a fallen world and those terrible things are trying to come against some very good people. But oh man, I just believe we're just scratching the surface of all that God has for us. All his promises are true. All his promises are yes and amen in Jesus. All things are possible with God if you can believe. So here's the challenge then.

The Greatest Gift For Children

SPEAKER_01 32:10

Since it's Father's Day, I'll say if you're father, or if you hope to be a father one day, the greatest gift, and this is really for everybody, but specifically in our culture, for fathers, the greatest gift you can give your children is a life lived closely to our Heavenly Father. Let them see you sitting at his feet. Let them see you loving Jesus more than anything else. And when you do that, this will even cause you to love their mother like Jesus loved the church. It'll make you the man that God meant for you to be. And it'll benefit everybody in your life. So don't let even the good things, work, hobbies, ministry, or even the busy and necessary responsibilities of day-to-day life pull you away from the main thing. Your intimate relationship and closeness with God the Father. Choose the good portion. Like Mary did. The better portion. Live in Goshen, the place of drawing near. Stay close to the Father. And everything, when you do that, everything in your life will flow from a place of intimacy and security. You see.

Grace, Salvation, Healing, And Closing

SPEAKER_01 35:05

And that we could never do. He laid down that holy life and shed his holy, innocent blood as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. To make our intimacy with God the Father a very real opportunity. Praise God. Titus 2.11 says that the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. But not everyone is saved, are they? Because there has to be a faith response. There has to be a born-again experience, an encounter with the Lord. Now, though, just by repenting of our old life, that's a hundred and eighty-degree turn. That's all that means. Turning around. You were heading for the world, for the devil, for your will and your way. We all like sheep have gone astray, Isaiah said. Rebellion. Just turn around and run toward God. Place your trust in Jesus' sacrifice for your sins. Believe that the Father raised him from the dead and he lives today. And ask him to be your Lord and Savior. These are the requirements of salvation. Right, Barbara. Just by faith, receiving this awesome mercy and grace as a free gift from the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, you will be saved. Then, as an outward expression of that inner commitment and change that new life, Jesus requires us to be water baptized, doesn't he? And then we will receive the Holy Spirit to help us in this life. The paraclete, the one who comes alongside us and takes a hold together with us against every obstacle that confronts us, leads us all the way through this life to our final destination with our heavenly bridegroom, the spirit of truth, the spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. He'll come and guide us and teach us, empower us, and bring times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Hallelujah. So that's how we enter into a life with Jesus, with the Father, a better covenant, with better promises, and the opportunity to be close to God. And that's what we are. Someone said, God's love for you compared to an earthly father's love for his children, is like comparing the son to a candle. And I'm here to tell you it's true. James. Chapter four. Verse six. But it gives more grace. I backed up a little bit because I love to hear about grace, especially more grace. Therefore, it says God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. We have to humble ourselves and come to God. Amen. Therefore, in seven, verse seven, submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Wow. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. God Almighty. You take a step toward him, he'll run three towards you. That's a heck of a deal. Our heavenly Father is calling us closer today. He wants to heal every wound, every wound from earthly fathers, even. If that be the case with anyone today. He wants to fill every empty place in our hearts with his amazing grace and love. He wants to heal every broken heart of even every father. Yeah, he wants to heal the hearts of the fathers, even.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

Because we've all made mistakes.

SPEAKER_01 41:13

About oh, everybody has daddy issues. It's true. I think some degree we do. I know I did. I never knew my dad. And I wanted to, of course, but I had these rejection issues all my life, you know, but then I was determined, well, I was just gonna be anything but whoever he was, whatever he was. And and then I I was worse. God can heal that heart too. Trust me. It doesn't make up for all the terrible things that some fathers have done. Some some absentee fathers. We need fathers to be in their home and and to raise those children to know God, but sometimes they don't know God. Do you see? God wants to heal all of that, both directions, every empty place in the heart he wants to fill. So he's just asking everybody to make a choice today, to draw near to him. Because in the place of closeness, nearness, presence of God, that's where he can provide. That's where he can care for us. That's where he can love us and keep us safe. I'm gonna commit to sitting at his feet, making that a priority in my life. Not let the distractions of the world interfere with the main thing. And I submit to you that he's a redeemer of time. If we put God first, we'll never come in second. Amen. Because when you live close to the Father, you're gonna live in his protection and provision. He'll make all the crooked places straight, he'll open the doors that he wants and he'll close the other ones tight. All those appointments you'll have, he'll say six of those you don't even need to go to. Cancel them right now. This one here is the real important one. You don't have to. You don't have to go to that. You can say no. It's okay. You know, talking about what Brother Larry was mentioning before, it's a good thing when we're close to God. Andrew Womak was going to get on a plane. He had told him he would go to minister down in Mexico. And if anybody knows Andrew, if you know anything about him, he's big on the scripture that says a righteous man will swear to his own hurt and change not. Your word is your bond. He had told them he'd go and minister at this thing. And then he called him. He just all of a sudden he just had no desire to go. He called them and he said, I'm not coming. And they were upset. They said, Why not? He said, I don't know. I'm just not. Well, that plane that was flying to Mexico crashed and it killed everybody on board. And you know what Andrew says when people ask him about his vision, Larry? It's a lot like what you're just saying. He says, I don't have a vision. How can you say you don't have a vision? Look at all that you've done. Look at your worldwide reach. Look at all the I mean, you have to study his life and his ministry to see the impact that that man has made or God's made through him. He says, I just have a closeness. I have a relationship with the Lord. And I just, whatever I'm doing, the campus, the buildings, the ministry, the world, whatever I've done, it's just been what the Lord told me to do right then. That's it. If he gave you the whole picture, it would destroy you. We just have to get into a place of closeness, and we just all I ever want to know, and that's that's all any of us need to know or want it, should want to know, is Lord, am I, what am I, what's the next thing I'm supposed to do? What's the thing I'm supposed to be doing right now? As long as I know I'm in the center of your will, I'm okay. Make this proclamation with me, and I'll be done here. I think we're I think we're drawing closer to God. Amen. That made you think about it at least. Say this. Father, help me to draw close to you today. I want to be closer to you today and every day. Holy Spirit, will you help me with this? Father, I make myself available to keep you as the priority of my life. Knowing you will be there to help me with everything else. In Jesus' name, amen. That's a good thing.