1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,720 Hello and welcome back to the PHSA podcast. 2 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:11,720 My name is David Bigford. 3 00:00:11,720 --> 00:00:13,580 I'm the pastor here at SalmonArm. 4 00:00:13,580 --> 00:00:17,760 This is a very special podcast series where I'm going to be sharing with you messages 5 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:23,280 from our most recent conference in Prescott, Arizona, the Beyond Limits Conference with 6 00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:30,600 a theme of to preach the gospel in the regions beyond from 2 Corinthians 10-16. 7 00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:37,000 I'm going to share all of the sermons from this conference series to include Greg Mitchell, 8 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:44,600 our head pastor, Joe Campbell, Richard Ruby, Tom Payne, and many, many others during this 9 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:45,600 series. 10 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:49,920 So I'll be sharing these with you over the next couple of weeks, and I hope you really 11 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:51,040 enjoy these messages. 12 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:58,000 If you'd like to see these messages in a video format, you can go to prescottpottershouse.com 13 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:04,360 where all of these will be available for you to view in a video format. 14 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:08,680 So without further ado, I'm going to pass, I'm going to go ahead and move on to the messages 15 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:10,160 and I hope you enjoy them. 16 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:11,160 God bless. 17 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:21,320 Mighty King, glorious, glorious Savior, and to stand here today, I'm very thankful and 18 00:01:21,320 --> 00:01:27,520 feel very privileged to minister, and our God is good. 19 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:39,720 We've come, many of us here, full of excitement, full of zeal, and full of anticipation. 20 00:01:39,720 --> 00:01:48,400 There may be someone sitting here that had some very bad news just before the conference, 21 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:52,400 and you received a phone call. 22 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:57,480 It's very, very serious, and I want to pray for you first. 23 00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:01,320 So if that's you, if you'd put your hand in the air, I'd like to pray for you. 24 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:06,480 Okay, I want you to, could you stand for me, sister, please? 25 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:07,480 Amen. 26 00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:14,280 But just say to you that, amen, make sure it's you. 27 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:19,880 May God strengthen you and comfort you. 28 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:22,760 Bad news makes your mind go to all sorts of places. 29 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:29,200 You may be going through right now, you may in fact go through a very hard time, up and 30 00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:30,200 down. 31 00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:36,880 But what God wants you to know is the conclusions where your mind is taking you is not going 32 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:39,400 to be what you think. 33 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:43,400 God's got the end, and so you can be assured of that. 34 00:02:43,400 --> 00:02:44,400 Amen. 35 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:50,320 Father, strengthen her, bless her, God, and keep her by your grace and by your love and 36 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:52,320 by your mercy. 37 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:53,320 Amen. 38 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:55,840 Father, we're very thankful. 39 00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:58,080 We're thankful. 40 00:02:58,080 --> 00:02:59,080 Amen. 41 00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:00,080 Praise God. 42 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:01,080 How are you, my brother? 43 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:04,280 There in the white, how are you? 44 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:05,280 You're doing good. 45 00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:07,240 Amen, would you stand for me? 46 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:08,240 Amen. 47 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:15,040 You know, sometimes we're about to make decisions, and they're very crucial, but they're the 48 00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:17,200 wrong ones. 49 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:22,680 And I think that you're facing something, and it's been a real battle, and you're about 50 00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:25,400 to make a wrong decision. 51 00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:31,800 And the reason why God has called you out, many of us make wrong decisions, and we blunder, 52 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:34,080 and we're insane. 53 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:38,920 The reason why God is calling you out is he's been trying to speak to you, to advise you 54 00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:41,260 not to do this. 55 00:03:41,260 --> 00:03:48,920 But the reason why he's bringing you in this atmosphere is because many years ago, you 56 00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:51,480 did something before him. 57 00:03:51,480 --> 00:03:53,120 I'm thinking it's a gift. 58 00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:55,560 I'm thinking it's an offering. 59 00:03:55,560 --> 00:04:02,160 I'm thinking you did something that really pleased him, and he really loves you, brother, 60 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:05,440 and he wants you to do well. 61 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:09,560 So whatever the decision is that you're about to make, make it right. 62 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:10,560 God's got your back. 63 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:11,560 Amen. 64 00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:12,560 God bless you. 65 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:13,560 Amen. 66 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:14,560 Praise the Lord. 67 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:17,560 Praise the Lord. 68 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:21,560 Who's your pastor? 69 00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:23,960 Pastor Felipe. 70 00:04:23,960 --> 00:04:24,960 Where are you? 71 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:25,960 Is he here? 72 00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:26,960 Oh, right there. 73 00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:28,960 Stand up, my brother. 74 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:29,960 Amen. 75 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:32,640 I know you've been praying. 76 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:34,160 You've been praying for your brother. 77 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:35,880 You've been praying for your disciple. 78 00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:40,000 You've been praying for his pastor, I see you. 79 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:42,640 God wants you to know that you can pray about a lot of things. 80 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:44,760 We all pray about a lot of things. 81 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:52,720 But when you pray about his church, and when you pray about his people, it's like you have 82 00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:56,080 a direct route to heaven. 83 00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:57,080 There's a lot of prayers. 84 00:04:57,080 --> 00:04:59,320 We're all praying about a lot of things, and I guess we all struggle. 85 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:00,920 God, are you hearing me? 86 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:04,960 Are you going to, you know what I'm saying is we're all in the same, Lord, help me, blah, 87 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:05,960 blah, blah. 88 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:12,680 But God wants you to know, and every pastor, when you pray specifically, when you pray 89 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:18,240 and you say God, and you begin to bring people before God, his people, you have a direct 90 00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:19,240 throne. 91 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:22,200 So don't be tempted to take things into your own hands. 92 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:25,200 Don't be tempted to walk in your own strength. 93 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:30,400 Your prayers, like any pastor, but they have a very, very powerful thing. 94 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:31,400 Amen. 95 00:05:31,400 --> 00:05:32,400 God bless you, my brother. 96 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:33,400 Amen. 97 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:34,400 God minister to you. 98 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:35,400 Praise the Lord. 99 00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:46,800 Pastor Scott Lamb, I just want to tell you, I love you, and you're an absolute blessing 100 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:50,200 to me and Carol, you and Sister Gayle. 101 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:55,960 And you, I don't know if this makes any sense, but I just wanted you to know there's a lot 102 00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:58,840 of people here that have been touched by your ministry. 103 00:05:58,840 --> 00:06:03,120 I would dare say you're on every single person's top five preachers. 104 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:05,600 There wouldn't be a person here. 105 00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:11,440 You wouldn't hit the top five, top three, maybe top two, who knows. 106 00:06:11,440 --> 00:06:14,280 But everybody loves your ministry and your preaching. 107 00:06:14,280 --> 00:06:20,480 But I feel that you need to know that you have more sons than you think, that there's 108 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:26,080 a lot of people that you might not understand, but you have become like a father. 109 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:31,400 And your ministry and who you are have covered them more than you think. 110 00:06:31,400 --> 00:06:35,440 That word son, I think you need to, is what I want to bring to you. 111 00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:40,320 It's more than just your ministry's blessed all of us, but you have ministered and sons 112 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:41,320 are appreciative. 113 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:42,320 Amen. 114 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:43,320 God bless you, pastor. 115 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:44,320 Thank you very much. 116 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:45,320 Amen. 117 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:58,280 And I guess talking about fathers and thinking about that, I, several years ago I lost my 118 00:06:58,280 --> 00:06:59,280 father. 119 00:06:59,280 --> 00:07:04,960 He passed into eternity and I was talking to Pastor Ernie Toppin. 120 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:09,840 He had also, at that time, he'd lost his dad. 121 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:16,560 Now his relationship with his father was not a good one and he was particularly grieving 122 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:18,920 and struggling with that. 123 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:26,040 And so we were talking and kind of sharing our experiences and God had spoken to Ernie 124 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:31,400 and said to him, the reason why you're coming to me is because I'm your father. 125 00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:41,200 We were talking about it and I just, it's when you lose your father, when you lose your 126 00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:45,520 dad, it's really funny, funny is the wrong word. 127 00:07:45,520 --> 00:07:47,520 Not funny, ha ha. 128 00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:49,520 Ha ha ha ha. 129 00:07:49,520 --> 00:07:51,520 No, no, not funny. 130 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:54,680 No, not funny. 131 00:07:54,680 --> 00:08:01,360 Even if you weren't close, it feels like something's missing. 132 00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:06,720 It just kind of feels like there's, I don't know, I just, with the loss of my dad, it 133 00:08:06,720 --> 00:08:09,960 just kind of, I don't know, just felt kind of empty. 134 00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:15,160 There was something there and we were talking about the pain and we were talking about the 135 00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:18,960 inner ache that that creates in the human soul. 136 00:08:18,960 --> 00:08:24,960 And the more we talked about it, the more we became aware of the presence of God in 137 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:27,520 our discussion. 138 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:32,560 We became aware of his heart for the fatherless. 139 00:08:32,560 --> 00:08:36,800 And as we were talking, Ernie made a comment that hit me profoundly. 140 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:42,080 He said, I believe, Pastor Ernie Toppin, he said, I believe the last day's revival is 141 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:45,200 going to be made up of the fatherless. 142 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:51,280 And as he said those words, something clicked in my soul and in my spirit. 143 00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:54,520 It was like a revelation moment. 144 00:08:54,520 --> 00:09:00,520 I could see God's heart, God's heart for the fatherless. 145 00:09:00,520 --> 00:09:06,160 I could sense him wanting to draw them, call them, reach them. 146 00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:10,620 And it actually changed how I drove home that day from prayer. 147 00:09:10,620 --> 00:09:16,120 I live in Waltham Forest, London. 148 00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:20,440 It can be a little third-worldish. 149 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:27,040 In areas very dirty, very, very, there's a large Muslim population. 150 00:09:27,040 --> 00:09:32,480 There's a lot of transient, there's a lot of, it's a lot of chaos. 151 00:09:32,480 --> 00:09:37,080 Sometimes that's good, we can do whatever we want, but sometimes it's very hard to have 152 00:09:37,080 --> 00:09:39,780 faith. 153 00:09:39,780 --> 00:09:44,680 But as I was driving home that day and I'm looking, I'm looking whether they were Muslim, 154 00:09:44,680 --> 00:09:53,120 whether they were, it didn't matter what nationality, it didn't matter how they looked, it didn't 155 00:09:53,120 --> 00:09:58,960 matter to me what their religion looked like it would be. 156 00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:05,120 I felt when Jesus said, lift up your eyes and look at the fields for they're already 157 00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:07,360 white for harvest. 158 00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:19,000 It was like everyone I looked at, I suspected came from family hurt and dysfunction. 159 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:25,120 People as I drove, I could see people, I could feel it's like their misunderstanding, neglect, 160 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:27,620 abandonment, the fatherless. 161 00:10:27,620 --> 00:10:37,280 And I sensed the same God that made himself real to myself and Pastor Ernie as we were 162 00:10:37,280 --> 00:10:42,100 talking was going to make himself real to the broken. 163 00:10:42,100 --> 00:10:47,160 Pastor Scott Lamb was in London at the time and we discussed with him and another pastor, 164 00:10:47,160 --> 00:10:55,320 we discussed with him about what we were feeling and out of that came this message. 165 00:10:55,320 --> 00:11:00,880 There is coming a revival amongst the fatherless. 166 00:11:00,880 --> 00:11:07,280 Matthew 4 verse 6 it says these words, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to 167 00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:13,800 the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers lest I come and strike the 168 00:11:13,800 --> 00:11:14,800 earth with a curse. 169 00:11:14,800 --> 00:11:18,880 Now I want to look with you first of all at the transcendent father. 170 00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:26,560 There's something I guess in all of us that craves a father, something in all of us that 171 00:11:26,560 --> 00:11:31,920 searches for him when he's not there. 172 00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:38,280 It's like something, it's like a longing that's unidentifiable almost. 173 00:11:38,280 --> 00:11:40,140 It's many people's experience. 174 00:11:40,140 --> 00:11:48,760 We live in a time and an age where probably in every nation a huge part of our population 175 00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:52,200 is being raised without a father. 176 00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:57,760 We hear often and we understand the effect that that's having on society. 177 00:11:57,760 --> 00:12:02,420 We know it means four times the greater risk of poverty. 178 00:12:02,420 --> 00:12:07,600 We understand the higher likelihood of prison and addictions. 179 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:12,160 We witnessing the very troubled youth that are before us. 180 00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:13,360 We talk about that. 181 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:14,520 We understand that. 182 00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:18,800 We discuss amongst ourselves the impact on the church. 183 00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:23,800 We talk about the difficulty that perhaps we face in discipleship. 184 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:31,160 Now a fatherless generation unable often to take correction, seeing it as rejection, highly 185 00:12:31,160 --> 00:12:35,520 emotional, et cetera, et cetera. 186 00:12:35,520 --> 00:12:41,760 Those things have helped us and given us grounding and understanding, but what is often perhaps 187 00:12:41,760 --> 00:12:46,640 not considered as much is God's heart. 188 00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:57,280 In our text there is a statement written millenniums ago by a prophet that identifies a last day's 189 00:12:57,280 --> 00:12:59,720 generation. 190 00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:07,600 In that generation he speaks where a father is separated from their child and a child 191 00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:15,240 from their father of all the things that that prophet could have seen of our generation. 192 00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:21,120 Of all the things that he could have spoken about and had been spoken about by others 193 00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:29,800 he identifies it as a generation of separated fathers. 194 00:13:29,800 --> 00:13:34,440 It's like it's noted by heaven. 195 00:13:34,440 --> 00:13:37,240 It matters to God. 196 00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:39,120 It moves the heart of God. 197 00:13:39,120 --> 00:13:46,040 This is highlighted because I believe God gets involved right here. 198 00:13:46,040 --> 00:13:53,280 Now I've mentioned before, some of you may know I was adopted by some very good parents, 199 00:13:53,280 --> 00:14:00,000 but I remember one time I was probably six or seven years old. 200 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:04,960 We were living at that time in England and I woke up, I'm six, seven years old, like 201 00:14:04,960 --> 00:14:10,960 you know just woke up, it was a Sunday morning and all I can tell you is that I had been 202 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:11,960 moved on. 203 00:14:11,960 --> 00:14:20,280 I woke up and I had this huge desire to go to church and I wanted to go to church. 204 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:21,920 I'm six, seven years old. 205 00:14:21,920 --> 00:14:26,480 I just, and I came downstairs to where my parents were getting breakfast and I said 206 00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:32,840 mom, dad, I said I want to go to church and they're looking at me like really? 207 00:14:32,840 --> 00:14:36,000 I said yeah, no, no, I really, I want to go to church. 208 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:41,160 And so, okay, so there we lived in a little village at that point and there was a little 209 00:14:41,160 --> 00:14:45,680 Anglican church in the middle of it and so they dropped me off there and they went to 210 00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:50,640 walk the dogs, as you do. 211 00:14:50,640 --> 00:14:55,800 I want to tell you, I'm six, seven years old and I'm standing at the back of the church. 212 00:14:55,800 --> 00:14:58,160 It's just a little Anglican church. 213 00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:04,640 I am singing those hymns like just I am singing. 214 00:15:04,640 --> 00:15:11,560 It was so real that the vicar came at the end of the service, he came up to me and he 215 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:19,680 said it's so nice, so nice, so nice to see a young person in church. 216 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:26,640 You know it's funny, I left that building and the next Sunday, slept in, didn't think 217 00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:34,400 about it every game until I got saved many years later in Australia and I remembered 218 00:15:34,400 --> 00:15:42,640 that moment but I've always felt there was something different about my life. 219 00:15:42,640 --> 00:15:47,980 I saw him at Ernie Toppin, we were sharing stories, us pastors and he said it's amazing 220 00:15:47,980 --> 00:15:49,040 you would say that. 221 00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:55,600 He remembered his family life, very traumatic, early days, father relationships, et cetera 222 00:15:55,600 --> 00:15:57,560 and he felt horribly alone. 223 00:15:57,560 --> 00:16:03,000 He was five or six years old and he had a dream. 224 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:10,080 It's like a face in the sky, it kind of appeared and he just, even at five or six years old 225 00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:20,080 he knew it was God and the voice said to him, are you going to behave yourself because I'm 226 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:25,200 going to visit you later. 227 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:30,920 Pastor Kenneth Van Fleet has allowed me to share some of his testimony. 228 00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:36,640 He was raised in an orphanage, he was put in the orphanage at the age of about 18 months, 229 00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:39,880 one and a half years old. 230 00:16:39,880 --> 00:16:49,920 Born to a Ghanaian father, a Bulgarian mother, grew up for many years in this orphanage, 231 00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:51,440 not a good scene. 232 00:16:51,440 --> 00:17:04,760 He was so broken he could hardly talk, full of fear, little boy, constantly in trouble. 233 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:09,480 He's now four, five or six, somewhere around that age and he's in the garden, he's in the 234 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:16,640 grounds of the orphanage and he saw a spider crawling up, going up a plant and on the back 235 00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:19,600 of that spider was a huge white cross. 236 00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:22,120 They have those in Holland. 237 00:17:22,120 --> 00:17:28,040 It didn't mean anything to him but it just caught his attention just enough to quieten 238 00:17:28,040 --> 00:17:32,480 his soul and he said, I heard a voice. 239 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:38,240 He said, I don't know if it was audible or just inaudible, I don't know how to explain 240 00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:46,960 it but I heard a voice, I knew it was God, I knew it was my creator and the voice said, 241 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:52,040 will you live for me, little boy? 242 00:17:52,040 --> 00:18:00,280 And he said, I made a conscious decision, not now but when I'm older. 243 00:18:00,280 --> 00:18:03,280 God have mercy upon Jennifer. 244 00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:07,200 Not now, when I'm older. 245 00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:11,800 But the point is God had visited, I don't think it's surprising. 246 00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:16,320 I think there's something in the heart of God that I'm trying to bring to your attention. 247 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:22,640 It is a very spiritual notion that God visits the orphan and the widow. 248 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:28,640 The Bible says in Psalms 146 verse 9, the Lord protects the foreigners, he defends the 249 00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:32,040 orphans and widows, he blocks the way of the wicked. 250 00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:38,020 Jeremiah 49, 11, leave your fatherless children, I will keep them alive, your widows too can 251 00:18:38,020 --> 00:18:39,560 depend on me. 252 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:43,300 There is something in the heart of God, simple thought. 253 00:18:43,300 --> 00:18:54,320 There is something in the heart of God when he sees somebody separated from their father, 254 00:18:54,320 --> 00:18:59,180 distant from the one they should be close to. 255 00:18:59,180 --> 00:19:03,960 We read of there's something in his heart that's drawn, remember Hagar, she has run 256 00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:07,280 off because of Sarah, Genesis 21. 257 00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:09,780 The Bible says she breaks down. 258 00:19:09,780 --> 00:19:15,480 She goes, she's sitting and she thinks to herself, I cannot watch the boy die in Genesis 259 00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:16,480 21. 260 00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:21,640 And so she sat there and she began to sob. 261 00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:29,800 And then the Bible says God heard the boy crying. 262 00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:37,360 God sees a boy crying, rejected by his father, sent out. 263 00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:43,960 I want to tell you, you want to talk about something that touches the nerves, that touches 264 00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:48,160 the nerve string of God, that touches his very heart. 265 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:52,920 If there's no reconciliation, the text says between a son and his father, I'm going to 266 00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:55,600 strike the land. 267 00:19:55,600 --> 00:19:58,400 That's who God is. 268 00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:02,680 And so maybe you're sitting here and there's a lot of our stories. 269 00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:09,080 So let's think about being in the house of the father, because given the enormous gravity 270 00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:16,420 of this fatherhood issue in the heart of God, it stands to reason that God's prophetic purpose 271 00:20:16,420 --> 00:20:18,560 is expressed in our text. 272 00:20:18,560 --> 00:20:24,720 I will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers. 273 00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:27,060 It's an end times prophecy. 274 00:20:27,060 --> 00:20:29,760 It's like God is targeting something. 275 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:32,440 God is keenly interested in something. 276 00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:34,960 There's a lot of hurt involved in this. 277 00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:39,480 In fact, we were sitting there and we were talking about this and one of our pastors 278 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:44,320 was their pastor, Kazin Cole, and he made the comment, we were talking about orphanages 279 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:46,560 and we were talking about our lot in life. 280 00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:54,280 And he said, I used to wish when I was a little boy that I was in an orphanage because of 281 00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:57,840 the terrible violence that he witnessed. 282 00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:00,840 Many people come to church this way. 283 00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:02,400 They come into the household. 284 00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:04,400 They come into the house of God. 285 00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:11,960 Their hurts are buried, resentful of authority, mistrusting, unable to relate, carrying loads 286 00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:14,960 of baggage. 287 00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:17,240 And God says, I have a plan for you. 288 00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:24,120 Ernie, Pastor Ernie Topp and walking through the park now, he's nine years old and incredibly 289 00:21:24,120 --> 00:21:32,320 alone and it's like he came to the conclusion at nine years old, I am alone in this world. 290 00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:36,920 It is the way it is. 291 00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:38,560 There's no way around this. 292 00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:39,740 This is my lot. 293 00:21:39,740 --> 00:21:40,960 This is my life. 294 00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:48,000 Nine years old, walking in a park, comes to the conclusion, it is me against the world. 295 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:51,560 I'm alone. 296 00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:54,080 And yet we're drawn. 297 00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:58,520 We're drawn into a house like this, into a new culture. 298 00:21:58,520 --> 00:22:02,040 We're drawn into the Father's home. 299 00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:05,480 We're drawn into his house, the church. 300 00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:12,200 And with salvation, when we bow our knee and we confess our sins and put our faith in Christ, 301 00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:17,640 with salvation comes a culture of reconciliation. 302 00:22:17,640 --> 00:22:20,880 God begins to work in us about reconciliation. 303 00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:24,600 The first is reconciliation with God. 304 00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:30,680 And we find in our experience that God takes up the mantle of fatherhood. 305 00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:36,840 We find in reality, he becomes the father that we never had. 306 00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:41,160 In Psalm 68, 5, he is a father to the fatherless. 307 00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:44,760 He's a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. 308 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:46,800 He's a helper. 309 00:22:46,800 --> 00:22:48,880 He says, I've got you. 310 00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:50,840 He's a defender. 311 00:22:50,840 --> 00:22:55,520 Those of you sitting here, this one, God says, hey, I notice you. 312 00:22:55,520 --> 00:22:57,680 I've seen what's wrong. 313 00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:00,000 I've got you. 314 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:06,320 And you who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, Colossians 1.21, 315 00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:09,720 yet now has he reconciled. 316 00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:12,000 And we come to church. 317 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:17,360 We begin to find things change because in Christ all things become new. 318 00:23:17,360 --> 00:23:20,760 And all of a sudden we're sitting down in church and we begin to hear things that we've 319 00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:23,480 never heard before. 320 00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:27,200 Things that challenge our hatred. 321 00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:32,240 Things that challenge our anger. 322 00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:36,280 Things that we feel that we have pushed down so deeply. 323 00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:44,720 And yet God in the passage of time brings it up so that he can heal it. 324 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:50,040 The spirit of the Lord is upon me, Jesus said, because he's anointed me to preach the gospel 325 00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:51,200 to the poor. 326 00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:54,240 He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. 327 00:23:54,240 --> 00:24:01,240 And we sit in church and we become reassured that his love is unchanging. 328 00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:06,880 One thing I found in my own walk with God, I've become more and more confident in his 329 00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:07,880 love. 330 00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:09,960 You find that as you walk with him. 331 00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:16,800 In longevity as time goes on, you become more aware, hey, hey, hey, I don't deserve anything. 332 00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:21,080 And yet you become more and more assured of God's love. 333 00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:25,080 It's incredible. 334 00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:28,120 His love's unchanging, constant forever. 335 00:24:28,120 --> 00:24:33,320 And then as we sit in his presence and we begin to grow in that assurance, then he begins 336 00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:43,920 to deal with us about reconciling our hearts. 337 00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:47,780 Reconciling with our fathers or our fatherhood issues. 338 00:24:47,780 --> 00:24:53,720 Because sometimes it's not possible to reconcile physically. 339 00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:56,120 Sometimes there is death. 340 00:24:56,120 --> 00:25:00,600 Many times there's a father who's unknown. 341 00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:07,640 Sometimes it would not be wise to be reconnected for legal issues, et cetera, et cetera, because 342 00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:11,640 there are deep issues. 343 00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:15,320 But yet what we do find is an urge. 344 00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:17,640 It's a whisper. 345 00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:21,000 It's a whisper to forgive. 346 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:25,120 It's a whisper to learn another perspective. 347 00:25:25,120 --> 00:25:34,560 To understand there are those that have failed us and to see them as sinners, lost, begin 348 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:38,560 to gain God's perspective. 349 00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:42,560 Begin to understand that they too, like us, broken. 350 00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:50,600 And I understand that everyone's different, but perhaps for just a moment we get glimpses 351 00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:53,240 of empathy. 352 00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:58,800 Or at the very least, God begins to help us to process our lives. 353 00:25:58,800 --> 00:26:01,720 There begins to be a clarity and a healing. 354 00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:05,760 And then he begins to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of 355 00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:08,040 the children to their fathers. 356 00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:13,560 And then in us begins to heal and our hearts begin to turn and we're able to process it 357 00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:17,520 correctly. 358 00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:19,440 We begin to minister differently. 359 00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:21,480 Pastor Success tells the story. 360 00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:27,320 We've heard it many times how there was a young man in his church always involved in 361 00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:29,800 fights and he was actually a Bible study leader. 362 00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:32,880 And sure enough, Sunday morning he's having a full on scrap. 363 00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:37,600 This is in Lagos, Nigeria, Bible study leader having a scrap outside church. 364 00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:39,720 As you do sometimes, you know. 365 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:45,720 So he's having this scrap and then Pastor Success, he's a young pastor. 366 00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:55,560 He calls in a young, Michael sits him down, begins to, what on earth are you doing? 367 00:26:55,560 --> 00:27:01,240 This man, this young man stands up, begins to shout that Pastor Success. 368 00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:04,120 Now you've got to understand this is Nigeria. 369 00:27:04,120 --> 00:27:06,400 This is Man of God turf, right? 370 00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:08,880 He's shouting and then he storms out. 371 00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:10,160 Success is a young man. 372 00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:11,600 He gets up. 373 00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:16,360 He's going to chase after this young disciple that's just slammed the door and taken off. 374 00:27:16,360 --> 00:27:20,480 And as he gets up and he's going to give him, I'm Man of God, you speak to him. 375 00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:25,200 You know, he's going to get up and give the big and you know, get up and he get, and God 376 00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:27,320 speaks. 377 00:27:27,320 --> 00:27:29,800 He's not speaking to you. 378 00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:32,640 He's speaking to his father. 379 00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:41,520 I want to tell you, we learn to minister differently and in his presence, we realize our need of 380 00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:42,520 him. 381 00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:48,640 And we find ourselves in a family, the family of God. 382 00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:53,720 And we grow with a sense of protection and we grow with a sense that we have a father 383 00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:55,200 who will never leave us. 384 00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:59,080 And we understand actually we were chosen. 385 00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:02,920 Actually we've been adopted into his family. 386 00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:05,140 Actually we belong. 387 00:28:05,140 --> 00:28:07,140 We belong here. 388 00:28:07,140 --> 00:28:12,880 We feel loved and healed and assured and bit by bit we're made whole. 389 00:28:12,880 --> 00:28:15,840 We're able to forgive those that have deserted. 390 00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:18,440 We're able to forgive those that have hurt us. 391 00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:21,000 We're able to reconcile where possible. 392 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:24,920 In fact, we're able to love when we could not love before. 393 00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:32,480 It is a miracle what we're involved in. 394 00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:36,460 He fills the void and heals our heart. 395 00:28:36,460 --> 00:28:43,640 So when we think about that, it makes us realize that perhaps we're looking at a key to the 396 00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:53,640 harvest and in it we begin to look and perhaps it suggests to us an overarching plan of God 397 00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:56,680 for this generation. 398 00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:59,520 You cannot talk to a pastor. 399 00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:05,400 You cannot talk to anyone without him saying about his congregation how many come from 400 00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:07,920 broken homes. 401 00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:17,880 The very thing that our enemy, the very thing that Satan accomplishes by the stripping children 402 00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:24,960 of their fathers, the very thing that evil intends to do to destroy people's lives, the 403 00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:30,960 greatest thing that perhaps we can see as the obstacle to the gospel and discipleship. 404 00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:38,960 In fact, God is going to turn and use to reach a fatherless generation. 405 00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:43,160 We have an unusual opportunity before us. 406 00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:47,880 In fact, I would put to you that it's right under our noses. 407 00:29:47,880 --> 00:29:53,720 I would put to you just like Jesus said to his disciples, you need to look up and lift 408 00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:57,920 up your eyes because you're missing it. 409 00:29:57,920 --> 00:29:59,560 You're not seeing it. 410 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:05,800 He just ministered to a Samaritan woman in John 4, but they had their preconceptions. 411 00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:12,200 They looked at a certain group of people said they'll never get saved. 412 00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:19,800 We walk our streets and we look at people and we write them off for so many reasons. 413 00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:29,120 Their money, their background, their religion, their this, their that, but yet strip it back. 414 00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:38,040 How many of them are walking and they're walking fatherless and they're walking broken and 415 00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:43,000 there's something in their hearts and there's something in their lives just like God did 416 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:47,560 for me, for Pastor Kenneth Van Fleet, Pastor and others that are sitting here. 417 00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:50,680 I'm sure there are many stories. 418 00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:56,040 There's something that God is drawn to them. 419 00:30:56,040 --> 00:31:01,600 And I would put to you that perhaps there is something in their hearts. 420 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:10,000 They might not recognize it, but as the broken and as the fatherless, there is a peculiar 421 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:19,840 sensitivity, a peculiar hunger, an inner drawing for a father. 422 00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:27,080 Combine that inner desire with God's instinct to guard, protect, intervene. 423 00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:34,560 I would put to you in the last days, it is speaking of a miracle reconciliation. 424 00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:39,720 That God is going to move upon the fathers and children. 425 00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:43,040 God is going to pour out his Spirit on all flesh. 426 00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:50,240 Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy a movement amongst the youth caught up for 427 00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:53,320 a love for the eternal father. 428 00:31:53,320 --> 00:32:02,040 And I would ask you and suggest to you that all around you are a people that God has already 429 00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:06,360 visited when they were young. 430 00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:13,360 You have no idea, you walk right past them and in their heart they cried out to God and 431 00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:16,120 God heard them. 432 00:32:16,120 --> 00:32:21,680 And all it's going to take is you to speak to them. 433 00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:24,400 It's for you to preach to them. 434 00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:28,160 It's you to tell them of the father's house. 435 00:32:28,160 --> 00:32:34,520 You know, we were straight after this, we worked on this, we went to Pastor Ernie's 436 00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:36,800 dad's funeral. 437 00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:43,880 As we were gathered there, Pastor Ernie had spoken at the funeral again, his family is 438 00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:44,880 pretty disjointed. 439 00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:47,080 They were nephews and nieces. 440 00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:50,800 I don't think he'd even met that kind of a family. 441 00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:54,880 But we were standing there and as we were standing, there were probably four or five 442 00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:59,760 pastors there with Pastor Ernie and this young man, he's got earrings and I can't remember 443 00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:07,200 what else, but he kind of comes up obviously, anyway, he comes up and he's talking to us 444 00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:09,800 and he picks up very quickly, we're preachers. 445 00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:14,280 He's come to see his uncle Ernie and he makes this comment, he said, you know what, it's 446 00:33:14,280 --> 00:33:15,280 funny. 447 00:33:15,280 --> 00:33:18,400 He says, as a young boy I was desperate to get baptized. 448 00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:20,400 He just said it. 449 00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:22,880 He's clearly not saved. 450 00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:25,640 He said, I felt the call to preach. 451 00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:27,280 I wanted to do something for God. 452 00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:32,800 His mother refused him and time has now moved on and he's doing what he's doing. 453 00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:40,720 I'm just trying to say to you, in broken families, there are people sitting there that are crying 454 00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:47,360 out to God and God sees them and loves them and one has moved on them and he's waiting 455 00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:59,520 for us to preach the gospel, to reach out and put the net out there and to see them. 456 00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:01,800 I have a prayer. 457 00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:06,320 We did a Father's Day service and we were a little, I must confess, we were a little 458 00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:11,560 bit disorganized and I think next time we'll be better, but in our Father's Day service 459 00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:17,680 in the morning we always get tempted, assaulted I think is the word, not to honor dads because 460 00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:25,120 you kind of feel because so many of those in our church don't have them, but we made 461 00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:30,480 a decision we have to honor because we have so many good dads that God has raised up in 462 00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:31,760 our church. 463 00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:33,600 We have to tell people this is God's will. 464 00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:38,560 He brings healing and so we preached on Sunday morning honoring our fathers, but on Sunday 465 00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:41,080 night we did something a little different. 466 00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:45,200 We did what we called a fatherless production. 467 00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:50,480 We called it a Father's Day event and we crossed out the word father. 468 00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:54,440 On the back of the leaflet we had all these pictures of youth and people saying my dad's 469 00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:56,960 dead beat. 470 00:34:56,960 --> 00:34:59,440 Speaking of the anger that they felt, we had that on the back. 471 00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:05,840 I want to tell you the morning we're honoring what God has done teaching us how to be good 472 00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:10,360 fathers and in the evening we had a service, a concert it was, we had testimonies, we had 473 00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:19,080 a man in our church that stabbed his stepfather, had women, men speak music and we talked about 474 00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:22,960 it and there was such a presence of God. 475 00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:26,000 Visitors came, God saved, it was just you could feel. 476 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:35,080 So my prayer is God let our church, let your fatherhood be magnified. 477 00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:42,080 God as we preach and as we serve let your fatherhood be manifest in our church services 478 00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:46,240 and in our church that those that come in find safety. 479 00:35:46,240 --> 00:35:49,640 Those that come in know what it's like now to be protected. 480 00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:54,720 Know what it's like now to know they can go somewhere and someone will listen to them. 481 00:35:54,720 --> 00:35:58,120 That they can go somewhere and find protection and provision. 482 00:35:58,120 --> 00:36:01,080 That there's always someone that's got their back. 483 00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:06,800 Oh God is a good God, a mighty God. 484 00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:12,000 Hallelujah and I say to us the harvest is white and it's ready. 485 00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:13,000 God bless you. 486 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:20,320 Thank you for listening to the P.H.S.A. Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. 487 00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:25,000 Be sure to follow us on Instagram at pottershouse underscore salmon arm to keep up to date on 488 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:26,000 what we are doing. 489 00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:31,560 Join the conversation and discover how Jesus Christ can revolutionize your life.