Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller, Peter Westera
Sermon 12941
Date: 2025-06-15
Time: Sun 11:00 am

 

P. Pete Westera –

Hello. P. Steve just told me on stage that he saw his kids walking with bags which he assumed were for
him. Is that true? I just wanted to clarify that for him. Gifts? Yes. They’re shaking their heads.
You’re all set. It’s going to be a great afternoon for you. You shouldn’t have told me! Not right
before I get the microphone.

A little introduction. Good morning. Good morning. Let’s see. It’s Father’s Day. Praise the Lord
for the idea of fatherhood. It comes from him, doesn’t it? (Prayer). My favorite verse on being a
father which I have to confess I meditated on a little too late in life. My kids were already at
least teenagers. It’s in Proverbs 22. You know it well. I think I’ll just share it with you.

Isn’t it beautiful that whatever Christ is, he wants us to be? He was the bride. He is the bride
and we are the groom. But also, we are the groom to our wives. He is a father and also, we are
a father. All of this just comes from God’s mind. It’s kind of a strange concept. It doesn’t really
fit with evolution at all. These kinds of things like the idea of a father. Evolution would have no
desire for that. No need for it. Evolution just needs a donor. Not a father.

Yet we love the word “father.” We yearn for the word “father.” Why? Why is it so important for
us to have a good father? It’s God’s idea. God replicating himself in us. But this verse is such a
great verse, isn’t it? Prov. 22:6, just to break it down a little bit.

Train up. Oh boy. Train up. You know, we have a role. Whenever we have a position or title,
there’s a role that comes with it. There’s something we have to do. By the way, this is not just
for fathers. I think this applies to all of us. It applies to of course mothers and youth leaders and
anybody anywhere that has young people around them which is all of us. Train up.

There is something we have to do. The average role of a father is no longer to train their kid. Is
that true? I think that’s true. When you go soulwinning and you ask, you meet somebody,
especially when we go downtown or whatever, you ask somebody, Do you know about Jesus?
Yeah, my grandmother taught me about God. My mother taught me about God. Rarely do I
hear my father. My father taught me about God.

Train up. Train up. There’s been like a role reversal in this area I think. Fathers are not training
their kids. Some are, of course but it seems like fathers are opting out and letting the church do
it or letting the school do it or letting even wives do it. They’re not there. They’re not doing the
activity of training up their kids.

It’s like a commandment, isn’t it? P. Schaller mentioned it this morning in the earlier message.
It’s the weight of responsibility. You got to love it. You just got to love it. It happens in so many
areas of our lives. As God uses us, as God puts us into a position, you can feel the weight of it and you got to own it. You got to say, that’s me. That’s my job. I got to take it on. I’m going to
be actively involved in training my kids. I’m not going to neglect this part of my responsibility.
I easily, eagerly step up and say I am going to be training my household or anybody that’s
around me.

So much depends on it. So much depends on my stepping up to train my child. It’s
no one else’s responsibility. I’m a youth leader. Do not bank on me to train your child. It’s your
job. It’s way more your job than it is my job. If you do your job even halfway decent, then I have
a shot. But if you’re not doing your job, I got no shot. I can assist you if you’re doing it, but if
you’re not doing it, there’s nothing I can do. But it’s the role of the dad.

I always say this. God’s plan for a biblical education is dad. It’s your job. Know your Bible. Teach
your Bible. Teach the great principles of God. Be a father like God and teach the Word. GGCA,
man I love that place. My kids went there. What a blessing. It’s not their responsibility. It’s just
not. Sunday School classrooms. I grew up in this church in Sunday School classrooms. Loved
every minute of it. I don’t know if I loved every minute of it but now I do. Thank God for that.
Thank God for our amazing Sunday School teachers that are right now doing their job but it’s
not them. It’s you. Take it on.

We have a job to do and we have to – it’s not a village. It’s me, the father, or us playing that
role in multiple different ways. We have to be intentional. We have to have a plan. We have to
have a blueprint. You can’t just wing it. Let’s just teach what I think is right. No, we need the
blueprint. My Bible is my blueprint, my plan on teaching fathers. It’s like me stepping into the
responsibility of learning God’s mind. Taking that on with all my heart and then speaking God’s
words to the people around me. Train up.

Train up a child. Now, that word is interesting, right? A child. What is a child? I say interesting
because it seems the world is extremely active, extremely busy deciding what a child is.
Deciding instead of you what your child is. There is a massive amount of information out there
that will classify your child, that will designate your child to be a certain this or certain that or a
certain way here or a certain way there. I’ve said this before but I think there’s 450 disorders,
you know, and they’re true. I mean I’m not denying that.

I know you know that we’re messed up, but the one big, you know, order, disorder that is
missing is heart disorder. The world is busy classifying our kids to be a certain way and a certain
this and they’re kind of missing the biggest thing. The biggest thing that they should be teaching
about a person is their heart, their evil hearts, their fallen hearts. That is gone. That is gone. No
one teaches that. Freud doesn’t teach that and a lot of psychology comes from him, you know,
and I’m not an expert. I’m not trying to be, but I’m just trying to make the point that it’s my job
to train a child up.

Train my child and God decides what that child is. And God says who he is and God gives that
child an identity. And I teach him according to what God says he is. And that’s bad in one sense
because God says he’s depraved or she’s depraved. But on the other hand, of course, God
brings in the positional truth and the Christian principles of who we are in Christ, right? But if I
get the first part wrong, if I don’t understand that my child has an evil heart, then I will never
really be able to educate my child properly.

One person said that a parent would gladly take responsibility and blame themselves for any
amount of sin but never blame their child for anything. We’ll own up to anything but don’t
touch my child. He’s perfect.

I have a grandson. Not sure if I mentioned that before and he’s really cute. And I mean
especially before he turned one. It just was every time you look at him, he smiled. I mean, it is,
it’s, it was, it’s a beautiful thing, okay, to be a grandfather. I’m new in the game. And but now,
he’s 17 months and I just spent a week on vacation with him and still love him. Still cute. Still
smiles a lot.

But you know, it’s happening. Evidence. I found evidence to my surprise. This cute little,
beautiful, young boy whom we adore, guess what? Has a sin nature. And I have seen it. And I’m
pretty sure his parents are aware of it also. No, they’re aware of it but it’s explained in my Bible.
Everything makes sense. When I train up my child in the way, in the way, God’s way, the
blueprints, the thoughts of God on training our children as fathers. And part of that is an
acknowledgement, an understanding of what this person is. Fallen. In need of a Savior. That’s
beautiful. It’s so beautiful to me, because without that piece of the puzzle, he’ll never need a
Savior.

If I train my child up not really acknowledging the fact that he has, you know, a depraved heart,
then I’m never going to be able to tell him that he needs a Savior. You know how we do it very
often? This kind of lack of depravity teaching. We do it when we judge others in front of our
kids or we speak badly or point our finger at others who have committed sins.

I don’t think we consciously teach our kids or think consciously that our kids are perfect. We all
know they’re not. But the way we do it is like oh we would never do that or I don’t do that or
we judge with them in around. We kind of point the finger. Those guys are bad. We’re good.
Subconsciously, we are teaching our kids, you know, that we’re the good people. But we’re not.
We need Jesus.

Train up a child in the way he should go. I love that part. The way he should go. You know, like
there’s no, there’s no doubt in my mind that he will not go the way he should go or she will not
go the way she should go left on their own. They will not choose that route. They will go
another route. They will choose the very opposite of God. You cannot rely on the school system or the social systems or anything out there at all to train your child about God. He should go
this way but he won’t go this way unless you train him. That’s why everything depends on it.
And we embrace this idea and we tell our kids and we teach our kids and we are very much
aware of the fact that they are in desperate need of a Savior, of Christ. And we want them to
know him.

This is what I love about my blueprint. It knows me and it knows my kids. And it knows my
grandkid. And the thing that my Grant needs, our Grant, my grandson needs is Bible teaching.
The way. And that’s what it means to be a father. That’s my job. We take it on. We all take it on
in different ways. I grew up without a father, so my mother played that role for me. And we are
so happy about the blueprint, aren’t we? Amen. Happy Father’s Day.

P. Schaller –

Okay. You may be seated. Wow. I’m so happy about the financial situation I our
church. I heard yesterday and I just started dancing on the table and there wasn’t any table!
Wow! No, seriously. Wow! That’s such a weight off of me. It’s beautiful. Praise the Lord! The
church is awesome. I’m so thankful.
We have two – can we say that P. Luke? This is online so it’s not a problem. I don’t know. We
have two brothers, a brother and his wife and their child here for Convention from far away. It’s
great.

Turn with me to Proverbs 14:4 for our Father’s Day message. And it’s really for all of us as P.
Pete did such a good job talking and teaching about how we affect the younger generation and
how much they need our ministry, our words, our care, our attention. There’s a principle that I
want to share in the beginning before we read that verse regarding our Bible from the
beginning to the end. If at the very beginning of the Bible this is a little graph. I hope you can
follow it with me. This is a big concept here, but you can get it.

The beginning of our Bible is Genesis chapters 1 and 2 and there is no death in those chapters.
Like when God made man, he didn’t make man to die. He made man to live. He didn’t make us
to suffer. He made us to be crowned with glory and honor. He didn’t make us to be guilty. He
made us to be free. He made us to worship like angels. We are like the angels in heaven. Jesus
said in the Gospel of Luke, we don’t marry in heaven or given in marriage in heaven. We are
made like the angels, he said. So, you have an angel nature in you, because you are born again.
Just turn to your neighbor and just say, You look a little bit like an angel! Not much but a little
bit. Okay. Now, have you ever in your evangelism and recently we just had a beautiful time
sharing our faith with people.

It is an amazing blessing as you learn to talk to people. People
you don’t know. As you are kind, friendly, spontaneous, relational. It’s really, soul winning is not really soul winning. It’s sowing the seed. I mean, God saves the soul but we sow the seed. And
it’s fun to sow seed.

And you’re gonna find some good conversation and go home that night and lay in bed and
rehearse it in your mind and enjoy it. It’s a beautiful gift from God. Have you met somebody
when you’ve been sharing your faith and they said, I don’t believe in God. And you say, Why
don’t you? Because if God is God, we would not have all these problems. We would not have
pain, cancer, death, broken hearts. If God is, if God is good, why did he make the world so bad?
So, how would you answer that? Well, I’m sure there are many ways we could comment.

Maybe you don’t have an answer. But here’s one and I think it’s a very good one. In the
beginning when God made the world, he didn’t make us to die or suffer. He made us to live. But
we do die and we do suffer. But it’s not over. At the end of the Bible here the back, the back
end of the Bible, Revelation 21 and 22, after death and hell are cast into the lake of fire – let’s
put that verse up on the screen. Revelations 20:15. No, I’m sorry. Revelations 20:14. What is the meaning of
that?

It’s over. There is no more death. That’s the last enemy, 1 Corinthians 15:22. Death is the last enemy.
And death has been conquered by Christ. Now, where in our, in our diagram, where do we find
Christ but he came in the – actually, not chronologically in the middle – but he came and he
said your pain, your guilt, your suffering, I am God who made the world is saying I’ll take it. I’ll
take it on. I’ll take it. I’ll face death and I will overcome death. I am the way for you. I am Christ,
the answer.

So, that’s our answer to people. Well, if God was so wise, why did he make it so that it’s so bad?
If he is so good, why did he, why couldn’t he have made the world a lot better? And the answer
is it’s coming. It’s coming. Yeah. The perfect world without tears, without pain, without death,
without hospitals, police stations. It’s coming.

Well, until it comes, what should I do? Believe. Believe in Christ. Do you see it? That he is a
loving Father and what is a father? That’s what we’ll look at in a minute. But I don’t want to go
too fast here. Here you are in history and you’ve got all the problems that we have as sinners.
Why did God allow there to be sin? Because he wanted free will. Well, why couldn’t he have
made free will without us like sinning? Well, think about it. How is that possible? How could you
have love unless you have free will? And how can you have free will if you can’t possibly fall or
rebel or go against God? So, the freedom is a necessity for love.

Like if my wife had to marry me, like she had to do it and she had no choice; like she’s been
assigned to me by her parents or a government or somebody else or you know you must marry
him period. No choice. And so, we go to the marriage down the marriage aisle. I don’t want to
go. I don’t want to go. I don’t. You have no choice. You have to.

Is there love? That’s not love. Love has to have choice. Love has to have the freedom not to
love or not to do this or do that or be that way. The freedom is important at this time. But there
will be a time, there will be a time when we will be like Christ and there will be no more sin in
this world. There’ll be no more death, no more sin. It’ll be Christ, God and God’s nature filling
the universe, covering the earth like the waters cover the sea in Isaiah Chapter 11.

A new world. We are told in Christ, we are a new creation and the old things have passed away. Can you
sense that in your life that you are a new creature? That you have a new heart? Can you, do
you know you have the Holy Spirit? Do you know that you have the life of Christ? Out of your
belly will flow rivers of living water. Do you know that you are eating bread, not the bread of
this world but the everlasting bread? That we would never hunger again? That you are settled.
You are in the family. God is your Father. Your name is in the book of life. Your sins are washed
away. You are indwelt by the Spirit of God. We are adopted into the family and that we are
secure, because he is our good, good Father.

And what does that mean? I do want to, I would like to talk about the mechanics – maybe too
strong of a word – but the mechanics of your life with God, with Christ at the cross. That’s
another message but an important one. And if you come, keep coming. You’ll get it. You, many
of you already know what I would say. Many of you could preach right now. Come on. Get up
here! Many of you could preach this message.

What I would say right now is that you have a personal cross where you relate to God by faith in
the Word of God. What God says, you believe it in the inner part. Do you know that animals –
have you ever wondered about insects and animals and how, what they, how they operate?
How do they know like on the patio there’s a little trail of ants that are going across? I’m sitting
in the chair and I see this little straight line like where are they going? How do they know that?
How do they know what they’re doing? What’s going on here? And they can, you can hardly,
they are so – what kind of brain do they have?

I mean, their brain must be so small and yet they know what they’re doing. And they survive through the winter and the summer and they gather their food and so on. Consider the ant, right? Proverbs says.
What is my meaning? God has said in the book of Job 39 – let’s put this up on the screen. Job
39:17, speaking about ostriches. Ostriches. What’s an ostrich? That big bird that can’t fly but
can run like a horse. That big bird. But it says here in vs. 17 God has deprived the ostrich of
wisdom, neither has he imparted to her understanding. Context: the bird breaks its own eggs
by walking on them. The ostrich is a bird that’ll crush it’s own eggs. It’s there in vs. 15 and 16.
Vs. 14-16. I’m sorry. I’m getting a little off my point here, but where’s – let’s finish this.

She leaves her eggs in the earth, warms them in the dust and forgets that the foot may crush
them or that the wild beast may break them. She’s hardened against her young ones as though
they were not hers. Her labor is in vain without fear because God has deprived her of wisdom.
God has deprived people of wisdom. People can destroy their own young. People can destroy
the ones that they love. People can destroy their country. They could destroy their government.
They could destroy the things they love. Their own company, their friendships. People can
destroy because we’re deprived of wisdom like the bird that’s deprived of her wisdom. Okay.
That’s the idea there.

So, what is a father? I have a paragraph here to read. It says, “Our country commemorates
Father’s Day this weekend. It’s important that we recognize the millions of children throughout
our nation who are growing up without their fathers. Data from the United States Census
Bureau shows that nearly 18.5 million children grow up without their fathers. That’s one in four
U.S. children. The United States owns the title of the world’s leader in fatherlessness.” Fathers
are missing. Fathers are missing. Let me break it down in our message here.

Look up at the screen here. When God made the world, he didn’t intend for it to be a mess but
it is. But what’s he going to do about it or what has he done about it? He’s not going to
abandon us. He’s going to save us. He’s not going to say, I’m done. I’m out of here. I don’t care.
I don’t care about these people, Adam and Eve. I’m done. I’m finished.

No, cuz he’s showing the universe. He’s showing the angels. He’s showing all of us. One day we
will see more clearly who he is. What is his nature and what are the attributes that make him a
good, good Father. What is I that makes God so awesome that we would worship him forever
and ever? It would touch our hearts. We recognize it. We begin it now in this life as we
understand something about this.

So, the world’s a mess and then he shows up again and again and again. And from that picture,
we have some understanding of our life because our lives can be really messy. Our children can
be messed up. Our wife or husband, our community, our country, the world. And we don’t
know where things are going in the coming years, but we can be sure that it’s a mess.

And in the book of Revelation, you see it the worst coming. Now, I don’t, I’m not saying when. I
don’t know when. But it is like that. But in this world, we see the nature of God. That’s what we
follow and we have access to God. This is amazing. We have fellowship with God. We become
like God. Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect as my father is perfect.” Like I, how could I be perfect? I can’t.
I’m not perfect.

I’m the guy that will bail out. I’m the guy that’s going to jump ship. I’m the guy when things are
going down, I’m out of here. I’m the guy that’s, you know, when the going gets tough, I’m out.

I’m gone. I’m the guy. Are you? I mean, I’m just telling you my nature, your nature. My nature
often is like that. But let’s take a look at this. A couple points about the cross here.
The cross means God came and he looked death in the face. And to be honest, I don’t think I –
C.S. Lewis said it. That man can’t look reality in the face. You know one example is how we paint
the tombs and in some parts of the world like in Haiti, they paint them bright colors. We put
flowers at the grave. We think of the best things we can say about the dead, the people that
have passed on who are in heaven or the other place.

We know scripturally I can’t look at that in the face easily. That’s why there are so many
medications for psychological disorders or so many bad habits and addictions that people have
because I have a mess in front of me and I can’t handle it. I don’t want to look at, I don’t want
to talk about it. I know one person that I know who just can’t, never wants to hear the news.
Never wants to hear about death. Never wants to hear about problems. They never want to
hear.
They just want to hear about only – and I can’t live like that. Reality is not my friend but when
you look at reality with God, you can handle it. That’s what I would like to believe, that I could
be, that the Spirit and the nature of Christ in you allows you to look at it, face it, and say God is
here. God is here. This is amazing. God is here.

Put up Proverbs 17:24. I don’t want to keep you long but I could talk a long time about this because
we haven’t gotten yet to the message actually. Okay. Proverbs 17:24. Wisdom is before him that
has understanding. Do you know that this will happen in your life? Cotinine in your faith and
God will give you wisdom. If you lack wisdom, ask God. It’s beautiful. James 1. If anyone lacks
wisdom, just ask God. Give me wisdom. He will give it to you. That wisdom will give you some
understanding about the immediate.

This is, this is the point. This is very good about the immediate. The immediate is where God is.
Where is God? In the past? Where is God? Is he in the future in respect to your life? He is called
the I AM. The I AM is the present. He’s not the God that will be one day and he’s not the God
that was for a while in the past but he is the I AM. The ever present God. The I AM God. That’s
his name. I AM. I AM here. I AM here.

Where do I want to live? Here in the present. I want God in my life now. I want God now in my
life. This is the cross. The cross means that God meets man at one place, that’s at the cross
where he essentially says you are wrong. That’s me. I’m wrong. He is right and he’s the answer.
And this is painful. But then, there is life. There is death to me because he died so that I could
have now life. I died to myself and I surrender by faith to God and then I live. I’m alive now. Not
the ends of the earth. Not the ends of the earth.

What does that mean? Look at the verse. But the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.
What is the meaning of that? Ends of the earth is like geographical. It’s like over there. China.
Or it’s over there in Antarctica and that the fool projects in the future because distance is
related to time. And I’m thinking well, when I get to Japan, everything will be okay. Wait a
minute. You got to live where you are with God in faith.

So, Paul is in prison. In prison, Paul is saying, Wow. When I got out of here, we’ll have such a
great time. When I get out of here, life will be better. When I get out of here, it’ll be much
better. It’ll be great. I learned that in my life early in Bible school. I’m so happy I went to Bible
school. It changed my life, because it used to be I used to live for Friday. How about you guys? I
go, have to go to school on Monday and I can’t wait until Friday. I get out of school and I have
the weekend.

What, why? Because I’m living in time and space instead of understanding that God is here.
God is here on a Monday morning. God is here in a prison. And Paul write, For me to live is
Christ. What? You’re in prison. No, can’t you wait for your vacation? No, Paul says I’m not
waiting for any vacation. My eyes are not on the end of the earth. My eyes are on him. And he
said, he is the Sabbath. Christ is the Sabbath. Christ is the way and the life and the truth. Christ
is the answer for life. Wow! So, that changed me a lot in my thinking. Wasn’t always easy.
Wasn’t always easy.

But we have God and maturity. We mature in life. We mature in life. Wait. Just wait until I have
my vacation. And have you ever had one of those and it didn’t turn out like you thought? And
then did you ever have a period of time – it was not vacation time – but it became amazing
because God was there in my heart, in my life, in my words, in my friendships. God was there in
my life just somewhere in Dundalk or Rosedale. Anywhere on the earth. It doesn’t matter.

My eyes are not on the end of the earth and my hope isn’t in what will I hope will happen later
in a convenient way, in a comfortable way. It was rather when the tough, when if it’s tough and
I can look at reality in the face. And my heavenly Father gave me his Son and if we have the Son
of God, how much more could he have given us than the Son of God?

Well then, how do I find the Son of God? The sacrifices of God are a contrite spirit and a broken
heart. Relate to him in faith. Be Spirit filled. Surrender to God your rights to be selfish. And
surrender your rights to your life at the cross. I mean the cross means death. It’s not pretty. It’s
not convenient. It’s not comfortable. It’s death to self. And we live in faith and then we find
ourselves Spirit filled. Wise. Understanding life better. Maturing.

Why do fathers abandon their families? Why do men quit their relationships? Why do fathers
say I’m done with my teenage son? I’m done with him. I can’t handle him. How could we, why
would we do that? Why? Because that’s the way we are. That’s how it is. I’m not, I’m including myself. I understand that but I’m trying to say whoever you are, whether you’re starting now in
your Christian life or you’ve been at it for a long time, whether you have failed or whether you
have succeeded. And that’s not my interest. My interest is to tell you that the living God has
given us himself so that we could live another way in a messy world.

Now, let’s close with a proverb that I had you turn to in the beginning, and I apologize if this is a
little too abstract for you. I think you can follow it and you’re doing good. You’re great listeners
and I love this. This could be – it’s Proverbs 14:4. Let me explain it. You have a farm but you want to
change the farm from being a farm for animals and you want to make it more like one of these
artsy places, a café there and maybe or like beautiful paint. To clean it all out. Clean the farm.
No animals because when you have to feed them and you also have to clean up after them.
Okay.

So, I want a farm that’s more like a museum. I was driving in the countryside in Maryland, I go,
Look at that farm. It’s so beautiful. I’m going to stand by the side of the road and look at it and
pretend like I own it. And the Scripture actually says I do. All things are yours. It actually says
that, 1 Corinthians 6. And so, I’m standing there and the owner drives in and goes, Hey! You take care
of my farm. Okay. All right. Nobody’s laughing! That’s okay. Forget that.

Museum. Museum. There’s no bloodshed. It’s a history of bloodshed. Museum. Napoleon’s
sword. George Washington’s hat. It’s clean. Glass cabinets. Everything’s clean. Beautiful farm.
No animals. Clean. Everything.

People want to have their life like that. There are guys that don’t want to get married. Why?
Why don’t they want to get married? They want a museum. Yeah. They want a – like they
pretend maybe but they don’t have the reality. They don’t want to get married because it’ll get
messy. They might end up with a broken heart. They might end up divorced. They might end up
with more problems than they could ever imagine. Just keep your life, you know, without that
and then just make it neat and clean like your backyard with some people.

We have a relative. Their backyard is filled with broken soccer goals, lacrosse goals, overturned
broken, empty, deflated soccer balls, lacrosse balls on the yard everywhere. It’s all messed up.
It’s all messed up because kids play there. So, you don’t want to have it? Don’t have kids. Don’t
buy the soccer goal. Don’t get the soccer ball. Don’t have it. Have it clean and neat.

What’s the point here? God made the universe and he could have had the same mind. He could
say, I don’t want the mess. I know what they’re going to do. I’m not going to create them. But
he’s saying, I’m in the game. I am God. When the mess comes, so do I. I will be there. I’m
coming in. I’m coming in. So, you have a choice. Some people, they don’t want to have a
church. They don’t want to get married. They don’t want to have children. They don’t want to
get a job. They just want to have a clean, neat little life that’s all under their control and that’s how they want to live. What are they going to have when they have that? What did they have?

Emptiness. Emptiness. Loneliness. There’s nothing really happening. There’s nothing broken.
Actually, a lot is broken but they may not see it.
Your heart is empty. You are lonely. You are a sinner living without any risk, without any faith,
without any, you know. All right. What do you want? I think cuz you’re in this church, you’re
game. If you’re here, you might have one foot on the way out. You might say I’m out. After this
message, I’m out of here. I’m not doing this. I’m not doing it.

The point isn’t our church. The point is you knowing God ’cause it’s going to happen to you. Life is
going to knock on your door. Death will knock on your door. And the answer is a life with Jesus
Christ. A life of faith in what he said and his person. His person is with you.
You know, Muhammad said things. Confucius said things. Moses said things. And a lot of
religious leaders have said things and then they said things and then they died and they’re
gone. They said words, poetry, proverbs and then the leader died.

What about us? Our heavenly Father said things and he sent Christ into the world and he said
things and those are the things we hear and guess what? He’s alive saying them. He’s alive
saying his Word into your heart and in your heart. You’re believing what he is saying. That I
have overcome death and hell. I have the keys of death and hell and I have overcome it.

The last part of the verse, Proverbs 14:4, “but much increase by the strength of the ox” means a lot
gets done when you have, when you’re in the game of farming. There’s a lot of work but you’re
made for that. We’re made to be gardeners in Genesis chapter 2. We’re made to keep the
garden. We’re made to be engaged in life and we’re made to help kids that have problems.

We’re made to teach children. We’re made to show up. Just be there. We’re made to be quiet
and oversee and care and just that dad is there. Mom is there. My sister is there. My brother is
there. And dad is teaching. He is teaching. He is saying no matter what happens, what God said
to us, I will never leave you. I’ll never forsake you. I’m here always. I’m a good, good Father. The
everlasting Father. And Jesus came and showed that to us.

So, you can be engaged with him, relate to him, and that nature is in you. And you will show up,
too. You might say, My backyard looks like a tornado went through it. Yeah, but all you, all it
took was two kids having fun and they had fun and they ripped things up and things weren’t
always so good. And there was a little bit of blood in the grass and a little bit of anger came out
of your mouth or your heart and that whole thing.

I’d rather have a life like that than to have a museum. And by having it perfect in my mind than
to follow the living God who says, I’m like this. I shed my blood for you so that you could have a
new life. All right. Let’s just be quiet for a moment and just thank him in our hearts. (Prayer).
You know, the other day, two days ago, I went wind surfing with my grandson. And afterwards,
we kind of rewarded ourselves by having a pizza John’s. And we’re quietly sitting there. You
know how teenage boys can be quiet and I asked him about movies a little bit to find things to
talk about. And I said, Have you ever heard of the movie, “Schindler’s List?” And he said, No. So,
I told him about it.

About one scene in the movie because Schindler was a German industrialist who was
manufacturing products for the Nazi party in World War II and he was hiring Jews to work in his
factory. And then he found out he could bribe German officers to get them to find freedom, to
get them to escape.

So, he saved 1,100 Jews and at the end of the, the end of the whole thing before it was found
out, he said, One more. One more. I could say, One more. I could sell my car. I could do, – I just
want to say one more. One more. And that scene, you know, has always like captured my
imagination. You know, I want to say play life safe because I want to. That’s my reality is my
world, my way, my safety.

But I think the story is more like and it’s not for everyone who had have the intelligence and the
courage that happened in the wartime there in Europe. It was incredibly – you’d have to be
very skillful to survive. And I’m not saying but I am saying the heart of a person saying I can’t let
this happen. I can’t let this happen. I can do something about it. I can do something about it.
And I think that’s what I want you to take away today. That Father – like our heavenly Father is
saying and showing us, I can do something about it. I can do something. And that nature is in
us.

So, here we are and carry that with you. I’m not telling you what it means exactly for your life.
But I know walking with God in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is the one that will give us that
right understanding that will help us in those times. Amen. Okay. That was a long one. God
bless you.

 

Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.