This message is one of the Times Square
Church Pulpit series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other tapes are available by writing WORLDCHALLENGE P
.O. BOX 260 LINDALE, TEXAS 75771 or calling
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are welcome to make copies for free distribution
to friends.
He came as a man, and most of
us know and we're convinced that he came
to redeem man from his sin, break his
chains, all the bondages that bind him.
Now that's been settled.
Folks, we want you to know that he
also came to this earth to reveal who
the Heavenly Father is.
He came to reveal.
In fact, Jesus said, I came from the
Father.
And then while he's on earth, he said,
everything I say and do, I see what
my Father's doing.
I do only what my Father tells me
to do.
Then he said, I'm going to go to
my Father.
I came from the Father.
While I'm here, I'm going to do His
will.
I do nothing of my own will.
And then I'm going to go back to
my Father.
It was all about the Heavenly Father, about
His Father, your Father, and my Father.
Listen carefully to John 5.
Go to John 5, if you will, please.
John, the fifth chapter.
Let me hear the rustling of the leaves
here, please.
If you come to Times Square Church, you
must come with your Bible.
Fifth chapter, beginning to read at verse 19.
John 5, beginning to read verse 19.
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, The Son of
Man can do what nothing of Himself, but
what He seeth the Father do, but what
thingsoever He doeth, these also doeth the Son
likewise.
For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth
Him all things that Himself doeth.
And He will show Him greater works than
these that you may marvel.
For as the Father raiseth up the dead,
and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth
whom He will.
For the Father judgeth no man but hath
committed all judgment to the Son.
And all men should honor the Son even
as they honor the Father.
He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not
the Father which has sent Him.
Look at verse 30 also.
I can of my own self do nothing.
As I hear, I judge, and my judgment
is just.
Because I seek not my own will, but
the will of the Father which has sent
me.
Do you hear what He's saying?
He said, I can do nothing on my
own.
Everything I'm going to do on earth.
In fact, He gathered 12 disciples to be
His witnesses.
And He was telling, He told the disciples,
He told the Pharisees, He told the scribes,
You watch my life.
You watch my ministry.
You look at my miracles and all the
good works that I intend to do.
And you're going to see the Heavenly Father.
Because everything I do is going to be
a reflection of who my Father is.
I am an expression of the Father.
I am the absolute essence of my Father.
I'm here not only to redeem you from
your sins, not here only to be honored
as the Son of God, but I'm here
to reveal the Father to you.
So you watch my actions.
Everything I do, I will not do on
my own.
I will do it for the express purpose
of revealing who the Heavenly Father is to
you.
The very next verse, after you read that,
in Matthew 11.22, you read these words.
Listen very, very closely.
Matthew 11.22 says, All things are delivered
unto me.
Don't turn there, but listen.
All things are delivered unto me of my
Father.
No man knoweth the Son, but the Father.
Neither knoweth no man the Father, except the
Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will
reveal Him.
Now look at me please.
He said, It's impossible for any living human
being to know who the Father is unless
I reveal Him to you.
You can't just get that revelation on your
own.
You can't get it by just reading this.
You have to have the revelation from Christ
Himself who the Heavenly Father is.
He says, No man comes to the Father
except by me, and through me.
He said, I am the Father and one.
Then the very next verse, He says, Come
unto me all you that are labor and
heavy laden.
I will give you rest.
Now, it's important that we understand why that
verse is connected there.
Listen closely.
He said, If you want rest, if you're
struggling and you want your soul to be
at rest, you want to end your struggle
and your strife, that inner strife, then you
have got to have a revelation of who
the Father is.
You've got to know that you have a
Heavenly Father in heaven, in glory, who cares
about you, who wants to be your Heavenly
Father.
And He says, The only way that can
happen is if I reveal Him to you.
Is that understood now?
How many understand what Jesus is saying?
There's no revelation to the Father unless it
comes through the Son.
He's saying, All that the Father is, all
that He wants to do for you in
mankind, He has shown it to me.
I came to the earth with the full
knowledge of what He wanted to accomplish.
He told me what to do.
He told me what to say.
So everything you see, everything you hear, I
am showing you what God is like.
I'm showing you what your Father is like.
This will unfold to you as we go
on a little more in the message.
Jesus said to His disciples, Blessed are the
eyes which see the things that you see.
He said, The prophets longed to see what
you see and hear what you hear, but
they could not.
In other words, He's saying, You're just babes,
but God has so chosen to send me
to reveal Him to you.
And all the prophets, they had just a
glimpse of the Father.
You hear David talk about the Heavenly Father,
like as a father pities his children, so
the Lord pities them that fear Him.
Isaiah talked about the Everlasting Father.
Jeremiah said, Thou shalt call me My Father.
Now these were just little glimpses of the
Father.
But in the Old Testament, there was no
true revelation of the Father.
First of all, Jesus said very clearly that
they longed to see what you see and
they didn't see it.
They never did see the vision of the
Heavenly Father.
They knew Jehovah.
They knew Him, all the names that He
revealed to them, but He had not revealed
Himself as Father because that revelation can't come
until the Son comes to reveal Him.
Jesus said, No man can know the Father
unless I reveal Him.
Jesus hadn't been sent to earth yet.
And when Jesus came, He came to reveal
Him to this generation, the last generation, in
a way no other generation has ever known.
You have a Heavenly Father.
You have a Father.
Unknown to the prophets in this way.
Unknown to all the great men of God
in the Old Testament.
But Jesus came to reveal Him in a
new way as our Heavenly Father.
He says, He's my Father and He's your
Father.
Hallelujah.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so
the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.
Hallelujah.
Now, I want you to get this revelation
and I'm going to make it as simple
as I can because this could be life
-changing for us.
In the midst of all the accusations and
all the rejections by the Pharisees and the
scribes, Jesus could stand and say, I'm not
alone, but I am my Father that sent
me.
He said, Say what you will, I have
a Father.
I and my Father are one.
The Father sent me.
I'm here to do only His will.
He said, I do nothing of myself, but
as my Father has taught me, I speak
these things.
And He that sent me is with me.
The Father has not left me alone, for
I do always those things that please Him.
The Pharisees came to Him and He said,
Where is your Father?
And what they were saying is, we have
no revelation of who He is.
Where is He?
Show Him to us.
We have Abraham as our Father.
And they said, Show us.
You know what Jesus answered?
And listen closely.
These are words that you and I are
going to have to deal with this morning.
He said, If you had known me, you
would have known the Father.
He said, If you would have really trusted
my word, I told you, He's speaking to
the Pharisees.
He said, I've spoken freely all through this
land.
I told you when I came, when I
walked the streets of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Judea, I
told everybody time and time again, everything I
do is the Father.
It's the Father.
He said, If you would have just been
watching me, if you would have just opened
your eyes and ears and accepted my word
and believed what I said, I would have
shown Him to you.
He has been revealed.
He said, If you'd known me, you'd have
known the Father.
How many are there sitting here now saying,
I know Jesus.
I'm intimate with Jesus.
We talk about intimacy drawing close to Him,
but folks, the purpose of interceding with Jesus
is to have a revelation of who the
Father is.
And if you say that you're intimate with
Jesus and you don't know the Father, you
have not yet had the blessing of intimacy.
You've not gone into the fullness.
You've not allowed Christ to open your eyes
yet to the Heavenly Father.
Very, very important what we're understanding here this
morning.
The Pharisees and the religious Jews were satisfied
simply to say, Abraham was our father.
Jesus said to them, in fact, He said,
I came from my father.
My father and I are one.
And they were so indignant at that that
He's saying He's one with God and that
He and the Father, that He's an expression
of the Father.
They picked up stones to kill Him.
And Jesus said, and they were calling Him
a devil.
He said, You call me a devil, but
I don't have a devil.
But I honor my Father, and you dishonor
me.
And I seek not my own glory.
It is my Father that honors me.
Yet you have not known me, but I
know Him, and I keep His saying, because
I am the Father and one.
And they came at Him with stones, and
Jesus stopped them a moment.
He said, You are going to stone me?
You're telling me that I'm a blasphemer?
You say that the one whom the Father
Himself has chosen and sent into the world,
you're going to stone the chosen one of
God who came in to reveal the Father?
You're going to stone Him?
You're going to call Him a blasphemer?
He said, If I've done the works of
my Father, believe the works, if nothing else,
that ye might know and believe that the
Father is in me, that I'm in Him.
He said, If you don't want to take
my word, look at what I'm doing.
He said, If you don't believe, believe, if
you're not going to believe in me, believe
that what I did was an expression of
the Father.
I'm trying to tell you, Abraham is not
your father alone.
You have a heavenly Father.
And it was important to Jesus.
He knew His time was short on earth.
He knew that if they didn't have a
revelation of the heavenly Father, of His love,
of His mercy, His grace, if they didn't
have a heavenly Father, they would have nothing
but Abraham.
They would have nothing but their dead religion.
There would be nothing to lay hold of.
There was no sense of direction.
There was no hope for these people because
they had no revelation that they had a
Father in heaven.
And that's why it's so important for you
and I today to understand this same truth.
Jesus said to them, No man cometh to
the Father except by me.
Let me tell you what must have been
one of the most painful experiences Jesus ever
had.
Don't turn there, but it's found in John
the 14th chapter.
We come to what I would consider to
be one of our Lord's most painful experiences
of all.
As painful as it was to be rejected
by the Pharisees and not understood, and His
revelations not open to their minds, the disciples,
His own disciples come to Him.
The Last Supper has just ended.
Judas has already received the sop and he
went out immediately to betray the Lord.
And Jesus is on His way to Golgotha
very soon.
He's given the last instructions to His disciples.
He's saying, I want you to love one
another even as I've loved you.
And He's given them all these instructions.
And by now the Lord, who has spent
all this time revealing the Father, believing that
they have the revelation, is shocked when Thomas
comes to Him.
Jesus said first of all to them, I'm
going back to my Father.
In my Father's house are many mansions.
I go to prepare a place to get
ready for you.
One day I'm coming for you.
I'm going to have you come and be
with me where I am that you may
be also.
And then suddenly Thomas speaks up, Lord, we
don't know where You're going.
How can we know the way?
And by the way Jesus answered Thomas, you
understand the full question what Thomas said.
It's not fully recorded, but the way Jesus
responded, what Thomas was saying, Jesus, You speak
of Your Father so intimately.
You speak about going Your way to the
Father, but we don't know that way.
We don't have a revelation of who the
Father is.
You do, but we don't have that revelation.
How will we get to the Father?
You say we have a Heavenly Father and
you say you're going to our Father and
you've taught us to pray our Father.
He's your Father, but we don't have that
revelation yet.
He says, how do we know the way
to the Father?
This is a confession that says, Lord, we
don't know.
We know You.
We've been intimate with You for the past
three years.
We know You.
We followed You.
But we don't know anything about the Heavenly
Father.
We don't know about His love, His care,
His tenderness.
We don't know those things.
And then suddenly, Philip speaks up.
And he says, Master, show us the Father
and we'll be satisfied.
Jesus was aghast.
Jesus couldn't believe it.
You could almost hear His incredulousness as He
listens to Philip saying, Lord, before you go,
show us the Father.
I love it.
That's what He'd been doing for three years.
And they missed the revelation.
And many of us sitting here right now
walk with Jesus for years and you still
don't have the revelation of the Heavenly Father.
You talk about intimacy.
You talk about knowing Jesus.
You talk about knowing Him fully, but you
don't understand the Father.
If you understood you had a Heavenly Father,
if you understood Him the way Jesus wants
to reveal Him to you, why would you
be sitting in despair when the enemy comes
against you?
Why would you be downcast when you have
a financial burden that doesn't seem to be...
Why would you be wondering that you will
never have victory over sin?
Why would you be always under guilt and
condemnation and fear if you had the revelation
of a Heavenly Father?
And listen to what Jesus answered.
He said, Philip...
Jesus is incredulous.
He says, Philip, have I been so long
with you and yet thou hast not known
me, Philip?
He that has seen me has seen the
Father.
How can you say, show us the Father?
How can you say that to me?
Philip, Thomas, my precious disciples, how can you
even ask such a question?
You say you know me.
You say you're intimate with me.
But did you miss the revelation I've been
giving you for the past three years?
Didn't I say that all the works I
did, every word that I spoke was a
revelation from Him?
It was God.
It was the Father at work.
You know why this is important to Jesus?
Because He knows He's going to leave.
And He knows that sinful man has to
have a revelation of a Father.
Because, you see, the revelation of a human
father has failed.
Has always failed.
It failed in the Old Testament.
This generation doesn't even know what a father
is.
There has to be a revelation of a
Father.
A caring, loving, compassionate, merciful, heavenly Father.
And Christ is that human expression of that
heavenly Father.
He came to humanly express who the Father
is.
This was an illustrated sermon.
Day by day, everything He said, every miracle
He did.
And He's saying to the disciples, I'm about
to go.
You have to have a revelation of the
Father.
You've got to be able to tell these
people out here that are like sheep without
a shepherd.
These are children that are like illegitimate children.
They have no father.
They're running around without any...
thinking nobody cares.
You're going to have to be able to
go out and do works like I did
and speak like I did that they will
know there's a Father in heaven.
That every generation will know it.
You have to have that revelation.
We have to have that revelation.
We have got to be able to say
to the world, what's my life?
Listen to what I say.
See the works.
Jesus said, greater works than these shall you
do because I go to my Father.
Get into a little deeper.
He's saying, Philip, you want me to show
you the Father?
He said, all right.
Think back at the wedding of Canaan.
Remember when the mother of Jesus came and
said they needed wine and so she's bringing
the water pots and she's saying to me,
turn this water into wine.
And He said, I turned the water into
wine.
He says, Philip, don't you understand?
That wasn't my will.
That wasn't my plan.
Didn't I tell you that everything I did
was an expression of the Father's heart?
He said, do you want to know who
the Father is?
That was the Father.
The Father was trying to tell you how
He cares for the most insignificant things in
life.
He cares about marriage.
He cares about your daily food.
He cares about these little things and that
was His first expression.
That was the first miracle I did.
I was trying to show you that you
have a heavenly Father in glory who cares
about every bill, every financial problem, every problem
for food on your table.
This was God at work.
This was an expression of who God is.
The Father.
That was the Father at work, Philip.
That was the Father.
Because you know I didn't do anything on
my own.
I did only what I saw and He
told me to do.
Because He's trying to show you how He
cares for His children.
He goes on, He says, Philip, do you
remember that widow from Nain?
That little lady who was weeping as she
went to the burial plot to bury her
son?
Do you remember that crowd of people came
by as we were walking toward Nain and
she's sobbing and she's weeping?
Do you remember?
I reached out and I touched the casket
and they set it down and that young
man rose up from the dead?
That wasn't my plan.
That wasn't my thought.
That was the Father trying to show you
who He is.
That He was moved by that widow's tears,
by her hopelessness, and my Father said, reach
out and touch that casket.
That was an expression of my Father's love
to care about the pain and the hurt
and the sadness and sorrow of His children.
That's who the Father is.
How can you say?
He said, show me the Father.
Where have you been?
He says, do you remember feeding the 4
,000 and the 5,000?
Do you remember all those baskets?
Do you remember looking at that hungry multitude
and I asked you where they're going to
get food and you said you had five
loaves and a few fishes and do you
remember how I broke those?
And you filled your baskets and remember the
joy you had because you were feeding people
who'd been almost three days without food and
you saw how hungry.
You saw those children just eat it.
You saw those men grab that food.
He said, don't you understand?
That wasn't my work.
He said, don't you understand I was doing
only what the Father told me?
That the Father saw those hungry people and
even though He knew they were going to
despise me later, even though He knew that
they were there for the food and the
miracles mostly, He said He was concerned about
their stomachs.
He was concerned about their physical needs.
He said that was the Father at work.
He cares about people.
He cares about those who seek Him.
They were coming to seek.
He said, you seek the Father.
He's going to reach out and take care
of all your needs.
Hallelujah.
He says, do you want to know the
Father?
Philip, Thomas, disciples, do you remember the woman
caught in the act of adultery was brought
to me?
They caught her in the very act.
And those self-righteous priest and Pharisees were
going to kill her on the spot, stone
her to death.
Remember, I just knelt down and wrote in
the sand and I just said, he that's
without sin, let him cast the first stone.
He said, who said that?
He said, that was my father.
That was my father.
He said, remember what I said to her.
Woman, thy sins be forgiven thee.
I condemn you not.
Go and sin no more.
He says, don't you see it?
Don't you understand?
God was trying to tell His people who
He is and what He's like, that He
is ready to forgive.
Here's a woman caught in the act of
adultery.
Here are accusations and enemies on all sides.
And here's the heavenly Father saying, I forgive
you.
Go and sin no more.
He said, that was the Father at work.
He said, go back now.
And that's why the Bible said, the Holy
Spirit's going to bring to our remembrance all
the things that He said.
Why would the Holy Spirit bring all these
things to our memory?
So we can have a revelation of who
the Father is.
We can replay it in our mind, go
over every miracle and everything He's done.
Remember everything that Jesus has done in your
life?
Jesus is trying to say, everything I've done
for you has been an expression of the
heavenly Father, who He is.
Glory be to God.
He's a caring, loving, heavenly Father.
Then He says, by the way, Thomas.
He said, gentlemen, do you remember when we
got off the boat and we were met
by a demoniac that had a legion of
demons?
And did you see the fear?
Did you see the terror in his face?
And did you hear it in his voice
when he cried out, have mercy?
He said, do you remember the man was
bound by chains?
Did you see the cuts and bruises on
him?
And do you remember I commanded those demons
to leave and they went into a herd
of swine and were destroyed?
He said, you see, show me the Father.
He said, that was the Father working through
me, showing how He will drive the devil
away from His children and everybody who reaches
out, that He has all power and might,
that He cares about those who cry out
to Him out of the pits of hell.
That was the Father.
Beloved, you and I have not only the
testimony that they had, the New Testament, but
you and I have had 2,000 years,
the history of the church, New Testament church,
of all the disciples, those at Pentecost, and
all the great miracles and the things that
have been done, all the greater works Jesus
said that we would do, all of the
past generations, we have that testimony before us
of who the Heavenly Father is.
And you sit here this morning and you
say, I know the Lord, I know Jesus,
I know Him, He's close to me.
I have a full knowledge of who my
Jesus is.
Yet I hear Jesus saying, alright, have we
been together so long?
And you still do not see, you still
don't know Him as your Father.
Now, let me say it again, out of
intimacy with Jesus, there must come a revelation
that we have a Father in Heaven who
has painstakingly, listen to me, He has painstakingly
shown us what He's like and what He
longs to be for us.
He's shown us what He's like and what
He wants to be to us.
Let me give you, this morning, what I
believe is Christ's revelation of the Father to
my heart.
I don't know how He revealed Him to
you, but here's how Jesus has revealed His
Father to me.
His Father, my Father, your Father.
First of all, and the Holy Spirit made
this very clear to me, number one, and
I hope you hear this in your spirit,
He chose to be a Father to me.
That's the role He chose.
I didn't choose Him.
You didn't choose Him.
God said, you didn't choose me, I've chosen
you.
And God said, I've chosen you.
I have chosen for myself a role.
In other words, I have chosen who I
want to be to you.
I've chosen how I want you to look
at me, how I want you to view
me, how I want you to see me.
I want you to know me and see
me, God says, as your loving, heavenly Father.
I want to be a Father to you,
and I want you to be a son
or daughter to me.
You see, Jesus went all through His lifetime
on this earth, knowing who the Father was,
knowing His voice, knowing His will.
He didn't walk in confusion.
He could withstand anything the enemy threw at
Him.
He could withstand the temptations of the devil
because He says, I know I have a
Father.
This is the end of side one.
You may now turn the tape over.
I have a Father.
He chose me.
He appointed me.
He sent me.
I have a Father in heaven.
Folks, you didn't choose Him to be your
Father.
He chose you.
And He said, I chose you to be
my son, to be my daughter, and I
choose to be a Father to you.
How sad that some of us won't let
Him do what He wants to be.
And we won't let Him be to us
what He wants to be.
I will be to you a Father, and
you will be a son or a daughter.
Jesus said, You are not of this world,
even as I am not of this world.
Jesus prayed that they may all be one,
as thou, Father, are in me, I in
thee, that they also may be one in
us, that they may be one even as
we are one.
He's saying, Do you want...
Jesus is saying, Do you want to know
me?
That's fine.
Now, I want you to know the Father.
I want you to know who He is.
Hallelujah.
He said, I'm going to Him, but when
I go to Him, I want to leave
you this revelation, that you have a Father
in heaven who has numbered every hair on
your head, that there's not a sparrow falls
to the ground without your Father knowing it.
He says, I want you to know that
your Father knew you when you were in
your mother's womb, and that He has thoughts
towards you that are so wonderful that you
can't even number them.
He said, You have a heavenly Father.
You've got to know that or you can't
face the devil.
You can't face life.
You have to have a heavenly Father.
You have to know that.
You have to be sure of that.
And that He chose that role for Himself.
And it's the Father saying, I want to
hover over you.
I want to be your protector to drive
out all demonic attacks, to supply every need,
to see you through all your trials.
I choose to be a father to you.
Folks, when that really hit me, when I
fully understand, He chose me.
He picked me out.
Think of that.
Of all the millions, hundreds of millions on
the face of the earth, you sit here
now.
God picked you out and adopted you.
He adopted you as His child.
You didn't go looking for Him.
You didn't ask to be born into His
kingdom.
You didn't ask to be adopted.
But He not only adopted you, He says,
now cry, Abba, my Father.
My Father.
You're my Father.
You're not just Abraham's father.
You're not Peter and John and Paul's father.
You're not just the father of Jesus.
I'm His heir, joint heir.
I'm a brother to Christ.
He's my Father.
Secondly, He chose to be my Father.
Chose me to be His child on the
basis of love and mercy and no other
condition.
He didn't wait until I got good enough
to be His son.
He didn't wait until I had it straight.
He didn't wait until I had all the
doctrines figured out.
He said, even when you are lost in
sin, I came to you to be reconciled.
I loved you when you were in your
filth.
He said, and I called you, and I
chose you, and I adopted you for no
other reason because I loved you.
I loved you.
I don't know why God could look down
at me and love me.
I don't know why God could look down
on you and so many and love us.
We are so unlovable.
We are so mean sometimes.
We are so unworthy.
But God in His mercy looked down and
says, I choose you to be a father
to you.
Now look.
Think about this.
He chose this role to be a father
to me.
Then He chose me to be His son.
I didn't choose Him.
And then He chose me simply because He
loves me.
So that brings me to a wonderful conclusion.
You know what it is?
It's simply this.
I don't have to figure things out.
I don't have to understand fully justification, sanctification,
mortification, glorification.
We need to study these things.
But folks, I still don't understand in fullness
many of these gospel truths.
But I know one thing.
I may not have it all figured out.
I'm not nearly where I want to be.
But I know one thing.
No matter what hell tries to throw at
me, I am loved by God the Father.
I am loved.
I am chosen.
And I know that He picked me as
His son because He loved me and no
other reason.
I can rest in that love.
He would not have chosen me if He
intended to drop me.
Do you understand?
He wouldn't have chosen you and set Himself
up to be your father if He planned
to abandon you.
I'm an earthly father.
You can't name any reason on heaven or
earth why I would abandon one of my
children.
You can't give me one reason that's legitimate,
that is honest or righteous.
You can't give me a reason, not even
an evil reason, why I should ever abandon
or leave my children.
How much more your heavenly Father is going
to be there through everything that you endure
in this life.
Hallelujah.
Because He's Abba.
He's mine.
If He's truly my father, then He's going
to do what any true godly father would
do.
First of all, He's going to provide for
me.
He'll protect me.
He'll deliver me.
He'll bless me.
But He cannot be a godly, loving, righteous
father unless He warns me when I'm in
danger.
Do you understand?
If He loves me, and I allow Him
to be the father that He wants to
be in a righteous way, then I have
to allow Him to speak to me in
truth no matter whether I like it or
not.
Folks, some of the best fathering I've ever
done has been with the belt and the
rod.
Mm-hmm.
I told you a couple of times how
my father used to make me kneel over
the bed, and there was a big black
strap that used to sharpen razors with it.
It was hanging on a nine-penny nail
on the stairs before going to the basement.
And my dad would bring out his rod
of authority, and I'm leaning over the bed
praying.
And I'm crying.
I'll never do it again.
I'm sorry.
I'll never do it again as long as
I live.
Never, Dad.
And that wouldn't move his heart because he
knew what the Bible said.
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a
child, but the rod of correction will drive
it far from him.
And the Bible says, spare the rod, you'll
damn the child.
And my dad did everything according to the
book.
He had a revelation of what a father
is like.
And so he would come down across my
backside quoting Scripture.
Foolishness is bound in the heart of the
child, and the rod will drive it far
from him.
But the hardest part came next.
He'd kneel beside me.
He'd say, David, hug me.
Hug you.
Then he'd let me cry my tears on
his shoulder.
He said, I love you, David.
God has his hand on you, and I'm
not going to let the devil have you.
He said, I know what God's going to
do for you.
And my father lovingly reproved me.
And if you go to 2 Corinthians before
I close, I'll show you this loving rebuke
of the Lord.
So, 2 Corinthians.
Sixth chapter.
Beginning to read at verse 14.
Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
Young lady, if you're running around with a
wicked young man who's not saved, you're already
defeated right there.
You're already in unbelief.
You're already in rebellion.
You want me to repeat it?
Be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
What communion hath light with darkness?
Folks, that means every ungodly friend you're running
around with can be a curse to you.
Every ungodly thing that holds on to you.
And what concord or what agreement hath Christ
with Belial?
Or what part hath he that believeth with
an infidel?
What agreement hath the temple of God with
idols?
For you're the temple of the living God.
As God has said, I will dwell in
them and walk in them.
And I will be their God and they
shall be my people.
Wherefore, come out from among them and be
ye separate, saith the Lord.
And touch not the unclean thing.
I will save you.
Read the last verse with me if you
have King James.
And will be a father unto you.
Ye shall be my sons and daughters, saying,
The Lord almighty.
Now look this way, please, before I close.
The Lord's saying, Look, I choose to be
your father and I've chosen you.
But he said, I will not share this
role with the devil.
The devil has his people.
He's a father.
He's the father of all lies.
He's a father of those who are in
rebellion.
Father of those who want to live in
mixture.
He's saying, I want to tell you something.
None of this works.
This revelation, you may have it.
You may know Jesus.
You may know him in a measure more
than you've ever known him before.
You know he's your savior.
You know he's your redeemer.
And you may even have a measure of
revelation of who the father is.
You say, Oh yeah, I know my father
loves me.
I'm going to tell you.
The Lord comes now and he says, I'm
going to tell you the truth because I'm
going to speak as a father should speak.
To a child that he loves.
That if you're going to mix with the
world.
If you're going to hold on to that
unclean thing in your life.
This whole thing doesn't work.
It doesn't work.
He said, I'll not share.
If I'm going to be your father, I'm
going to be your one and only father.
And you're going to forsake the world.
You're going to forsake all of its pleasures.
You're going to lay down your sin.
You're not going to hold on to any
unclean, filthy thing in your life.
You're going to look at it and say,
No.
My father wants to be a father to
me.
He wants to bring me into joy and
victory.
He wants to lead and guide me.
He wants to favor me as only God
can favor his children.
But he will not permit me to come
with mixture.
He will not let me come with an
unclean hand that's been touching an unclean thing.
He says, touch not the unclean.
Come out from among them.
May I talk to you who are still
in show business?
Nobody from this pulpit has ever railed against
you.
I want to tell you something.
I don't understand.
I cannot for the life of me comprehend
how you can say that you want him
as your heavenly father and that you're going
to serve Jesus with all of your heart
and he's your Lord and Savior.
And you look at this word from a
loving heavenly father who says that you can't
be a friend to the world.
Any man who's a friend to the world
is an enemy to God.
And how can you go and be a
part of that which would blaspheme the name
of the Lord or be unclean?
Anything that's unclean, how can you touch it
if it's unclean?
You know, we have people, and I may
be speaking about that tonight, I don't know.
But we have people who say, I know
Jesus.
I'm intimate with him.
And I know I have a heavenly father
who loves me.
So I have a revelation.
Then how is it that you can go
into a theater?
Or how is it you can rent a
movie?
And you can hear the name of Jesus
blasphemed.
And you don't get angry.
You don't rise up and say that's enough.
Listen, you can go to Walt Disney now
and hear the name of Jesus cursed time
and time again.
You can't even go to a G movie
anymore without hearing the name of Jesus.
Don't tell me you want a heavenly father.
Don't tell me you want this revelation.
Don't tell me anything about intimacy with Jesus.
If you can just sit there and the
blessed name of Jesus and your precious heavenly
father is being cursed and mocked.
And you paid a price to see it
and hear it.
I'm saying you don't even know the Lord.
I'm saying it again.
You don't even know his heart.
You have no revelation of who he is.
You're still in the world.
He has not yet been revealed to you
as his heavenly father.
He says, come on out.
Come on out.
Then I will receive you as a son,
as a daughter, and I'll be a father
to you.
I'll be your father.
Hallelujah.
All I'm asking of you, come on out
of the world now.
Come on out of the world.
You say you want to follow Jesus.
Don't come halfway.
Come all the way.
And the Lord says, if you take that
step, I'll tell you something else.
If you really want that, you know what
your father will say?
He'll say, all right.
You say it's too hard.
You say, I really want to be delivered.
I don't want any unclean thing in my
life.
He said, if you really mean that, you'll
trust me as your father to deliver you.
I'll send the Holy Ghost.
He will give you power.
He'll give you authority.
He'll make you ashamed of your sin.
He'll give you hope while you're in the
struggle.
He'll bring you through little by little.
You'll see victory in your life.
If that's what you want, you can have
it because I'm your father.
And I'll not withhold any good thing.
He said, you earthly know how to give
good things to your kids, your children.
How much more will your father give good
things to his children, those things that are
necessary?
The best thing in the world is victory
over sin.
He said, I'll give it to you.
You want it, I'll give it to you,
but you have to desire it.
Will you stand?
I want you to turn around, shake hands
with three people and from the depth of
your heart say, I have a father.
I have a father in heaven.
Amen.
And he loves me and he loves you.
He loves you.
I have a father in heaven.
Glory to God.
He's my father.
Devil, he's my father.
World, he's my father.
Hallelujah.
Let's bow our heads.
Heavenly Father, there are those that are standing
here this morning.
They're so confused and so hurt.
And Lord, a drifting spirit has come upon
their bodies and their minds.
And they've been drifting.
And little by little there's a coldness setting
in.
Oh, God, open our eyes this morning.
Open their eyes that you want to come
now and embrace them and put your arms
around them and say, come, my child.
Come, daughter.
Come, son.
Come on back to your first love.
Come back and I'll receive you.
Walk away from these things.
Please just walk away and come to me
and I'll no wise turn you down.
Hallelujah.
If you're standing here this morning, you say,
Pastor David, that's me.
And I don't know where that confusion's come
from.
I don't know what your battle is.
But the Lord wants to bring great peace
and rest to your soul.
Are you troubled in mind or spirit this
morning?
Has the enemy been coming at you with
a flood, just trying to destroy you?
Up in the balcony, go to the stairs
on either side and come down.
Anyone here.
And I'll tell you what, if you've been
running from God, if you're backslidden, if you're
cold, don't walk out of here.
Don't walk out of here without saying, Lord,
I want this revelation of my Father who
will keep me and hold me.
Keep me so the devil can never pluck
me out of his hands.
Hallelujah.
I want that.
I want that faith.
Step out of your seat, wherever you're at.
There'll be many coming.
So just follow these that are coming up
in the balcony.
We wait for you also backstage, downstairs.
Few moments.
I'll share something with you.
What's the first thing a father will do
when he sees one of his children in
trouble?
Maybe there's a fire burning.
A little child is in the fire.
What does a father first do?
Doesn't he reach out?
He says, take my hand.
Folks, with all the struggling we do, trying
to figure things out and all the sweat
and all the hassle, everything we go through
trying to please the Father, all he's saying
is, take my hand.
Rest.
He said, are you wearing heavy laden?
Come to me and I'll give you rest.
I'm your father.
Just come to me.
I'll give you the rest.
Now, if you'll trust that I'm a father
and lay your, put your life in my
hands.
Just put your life in my hands.
Folks, I do that.
I've had three women in my household, my
middle household, with cancer, my wife and two
daughters.
I've had just put, I put them in
the father's hands.
Or I'd go crazy every time one got
pain or weak and sick.
I'd say, oh no, another cancer.
You have to say, Father, I give my
life into your hands.
How do you handle your enemies?
You can't.
How do you handle those?
You're in a marriage problem or you're in
a household problem that's trying to you, it's
testing you and you go home to sorrow.
You stand here even now, there's sorrow in
your heart.
Does God want you to just beg him?
Why would you beg him to be what
he's wanting so badly to be to you?
A father.
You don't have to beg him to be
a father and to do what a father
will do.
He said, I'll do what is right.
I'll give you what you need.
I'll do what has to be done.
But he says, you're going to take me
by the hand.
God said, I'll walk you through the fire.
I'll walk you through the floods.
I'll walk you through any trial that you
have in your life.
But you've got to trust your life into
my hands.
Your part is just to simply give up
and trust.
Say, Lord, no more figuring it out.
I can't do it.
Here I am, Lord, take me.
Father, I put my life, everything.
Folks, I've had to lay this church in
his hands.
I've had to lay down the space that
we need in his hands.
I've laid down every minister of this church
in his hands.
I don't carry this burden on my head.
I'd be a dead man.
I'd have died long ago.
This church is not going to kill me
with ulcers.
Nobody is going to kill me with ulcers.
I laid you and everybody else on the
altar.
I laid it in his hands.
He's reaching out to you right now and
said, just give it to me.
If you give me your life, that means
every problem, everything that's in your life.
Just give me your life and everything that's
in it.
Hallelujah.
He said, but Dave, I'm in a hopeless
situation.
Hopeless to who?
Maybe to you.
But not to him.
He said, with God, the Father, nothing is
impossible.
Nothing.
I want everybody that came forward to pray
this prayer with me now.
Just close yourself in with him for a
moment.
And I want you to pray this from
your innermost being.
From all, from deep within your soul.
Dear Jesus, Show me the Father.
Give me the revelation that I have one
who cares for me.
And oh Jesus, you are the expression of
that love.
You're the gift of that love.
You're the embodiment of that love.
Thank you, Father, for Jesus.
Thank you, Father, for the Holy Spirit.
Thank you, Father, that you care for me.
And that you're going to deliver me.
And you're going to send angels if you
have to.
Do what you must, Father.
But I give you my life.
Jesus, I give you my sins.
I give you my burdens and all my
cares.
When I walk out today, I walk out
with my Father.
Who sees in secret, but rewards openly.
Hallelujah.
I want you to just love the Father
right now.
Father, I love you.
Jesus, I love you.
Holy Spirit, I love you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Heavenly Father.
Glory be to Jesus.
Glory.
He is Lord.
He is risen from the dead.
And he is Lord.
Everybody in the house, before we dismiss this
service, will you raise your hands and worship
him as we sing it.
Sing it unto him.
Don't look around.
Look to him and sing it.
This is the conclusion of the tape.