Father Hunger In A Fatherless World

The Shepherd's Church

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It is wonderful to be here with y 'all. I'm very grateful to your pastor and your leadership for the invitation

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We've enjoyed a very generous and gracious hospitality Not only in this community, but in the broader

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Christian faithful Christian community here in the Boston area It is a delight to come to a place like Massachusetts and meet

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Christians who are awake and not woke That's that's the way it's got to be

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So I want to read the text it's Malachi 4 verses 5 and 6 these are the words of God Behold, I will send you

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Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and The heart of the children to the fathers lest I come and smite the earth with a curse

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Gracious God and Father we commit this time to you I pray that your Holy Spirit would be taking these words and driving them into our hearts use them

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I pray as an encouragement as an admonition as a rebuke as a comfort. I pray however

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However, your word needs to be applied to our condition. I pray your spirit would do that. We pray in Jesus name.

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Amen So this morning I want to speak about Father hunger in fatherless times father hunger in fatherless times we live in fatherless times and this is

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As the Word of God teaches a very dire situation

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The symptoms are marked and they are everywhere in some ways We've adjusted to it and in others we in the conservative

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Christian world have overreacted to this vacuum by trying to Manufacture our own jury -rigged solutions to the problems, which doesn't really work invariably makes things worse now one of the things that one of the

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The old Bits of advice that older preachers give to younger preachers and you may have heard it before is first Tell them what you're gonna tell them and then secondly tell them and then tell them what you told them.

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So tell Tell them what you're gonna tell them tell them and then tell them what you told them and I'm gonna

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I'm gonna do that because I'm at a visiting speaker and you might not know my the ins and outs and stuff so I just want to make the

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Central driving point here very clear at the outset and then tease it out of the text as we work through it and then

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Remind you of it again The Christian faith the preaching of the gospel is the is the gospel the

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Bible calls it this over and over again It is the gospel of the kingdom. It is the gospel of the kingdom.

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We are announcing the arrival We are announcing the coronation of a king that coronation happened 2 ,000 years ago

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We that's the gospel of the kingdom and this is going to have a direct impact on whether or not we understand the

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Dilemma of fatherlessness. I hope to tie all this together so the think of it this way as Americans we often think that evangelism is the process of campaigning for we're trying to get

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Jesus elected to something and We're campaigning for president and so we go door -to -door and we hand out leaflets and we try to we want we want to people to vote for Jesus and If we just get enough people to vote for Jesus, then we can get something done around here

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But it's this is exactly backwards Jesus has been crowned king already

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Jesus is already the king and those who don't accept it Don't those who don't believe that are in a very odd position

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Like I remember back in the 70s or 80s sometime There was a Japanese soldier who had finally came down and surrendered in the

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Philippines somewhere he'd been fighting World War two for decades after the war had ended and Finally said okay.

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He turned himself in that's the position the unbelieving world is in Jesus has already captured the capital city

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The devil has been toppled His capital city has fallen and we are commissioned to go out into the world and tell the world that Jesus is

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King All right, that's our Commission. We're not campaigning. We're announcing. We're not campaigning.

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We're announcing to State it very bluntly Who is the king of Massachusetts?

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the Lord Jesus Christ All right, who are the Japanese soldiers hiding up in the jungle?

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All the unbelievers who think they're in control of everything but Jesus is the king of Massachusetts Jesus is the king of the

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United States. Think of it another way. What we need is a Copernican Revolution All right

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Many times people think that becoming a Christian is so I'm here at the center of my life and then

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I've got different planets orbiting me the son of me and There's my vocation and there's my family and my hobbies

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These are all planets revolving around me and becoming a Christian. Everybody thinks is adding a planet okay,

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I add the Jesus planet or I I add the go -to -church -on -Sunday planet and it all but everything's still revolving around me and My interests and my felt needs but it's not that way at all becoming a

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Christian is a Copernican Revolution Jesus is the center and you begin to revolve around him everything everything goes that direction.

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So that's the central Point that's the thing. I want to drive at Jesus is a king.

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Jesus is The one who brings us to the father. This is already accomplished.

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This is gospel You're and you're not telling everybody what to do. You're telling everybody what has been done

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Okay, that's the gospel you tell everybody what has been done and then there is a response that they must have to that gospel

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So what must we do to your declaration of what has been done? Instead of going to them and say here's what you must do get your act together.

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All right. Well, that's moral. That's moralism That's that's do -gooder II with the world does not need any more do -gooder

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II the do -gooder II We've got is killing us already So we need gospel we need good news.

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We do not need good advice We need good news and the good news is the gospel of the kingdom All right, so let's tie this in with these great words from Malachi When John the

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Baptist was asked directly if he was Elijah he said that he was not that's in John 121

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John is asked. Are you Elijah and John says that he was not and I take his response as Simply saying

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I'm not the reincarnation of Elijah So for example when Jesus met with Moses and Elijah on the

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Mount of Transfiguration It was with Moses and Elijah not Moses and John the Baptist John the

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Baptist was already dead So Jesus didn't meet with John the Baptist on the Mount of Transfiguration Also while I'm there on the

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Mount of Transfiguration Notice that Moses did eventually make it into the promised land So Jesus is there

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Jesus is there with Moses and Elijah, but not Moses and John the Baptist. So I think John the Baptist is saying no

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I'm not John the Baptist reincarnated. I'm not I'm not John the Baptist. I'm not Elijah.

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Excuse me I'm not Elijah in that sense. And yet the question was a reasonable question He was a prophet just like Elijah and he dressed in exactly the same way that Elijah did 2nd

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Kings 1 8 and Matthew 3 4 and yet and Jesus when he was asked this same question

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Replied that John the Baptist was Elijah So there's John the Baptist says I'm not

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Elijah in one sense and Jesus says yet in another sense. He is Elijah that's

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Matthew 17 10 and 12 and Mark 9 11 through 13 and Matthew 11 14

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So the question was asked because this particular prophecy found in our text The question is asked because of what

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Malachi says when Elijah came it would be just it would be just prior To the great and dreadful day of the

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Lord in other words Malachi says that Elijah would come as a forerunner to the Messiah, which is precisely the

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Precisely the role assigned to John the Baptist in the New Testament. He's the forerunner. He's the voice crying in the wilderness

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He is the preparation. He is the advanced team for the Messiah So what would be the role of this

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Elijah? His task would be to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers

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Lest God come and smite the earth with the curse now Here's where I want you to start paying attention that the well you could pay attention earlier

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I This is where I want you to pay or mark detention Elijah comes to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and vice versa, but he doesn't do it by organizing family retreats

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All right, he doesn't start holding family seminars that's not what he's doing What is it?

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What does he do? Well It's interesting the New Testament explicitly connects John to this prophecy

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But it does not explicitly talk about this particular consequence of his ministry the hearts of Fathers and children being reconciled, but we do know that this is what happened.

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So how did John bring this about? What did he preach? What did he preach his was a baptism of repentance?

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His message was a message of repentance in those days came John the Baptist Preaching in the

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King in the wilderness of Judea saying repent ye For the kingdom of heaven is at hand

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So this is the message repent because the kingdom is here repent because I'm announcing a kingdom

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Okay, he doesn't say repent and go home and make up with your wife. He does

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He's now that's going to be a downstream consequence That's going to be one of the hearts of the fathers is going to be turned to the children

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That's going to be a downstream consequence, but you get there by preaching the kingdom You don't get there by by preaching a sort of a

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Family centric. This is a Christ a centric message We're pre we preach Christ and we preach him crucified and when we preach

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Christ and him crucified when we preach the resurrected King that will have consequences

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But what we have done is we have radically individualized Everything so when we preach the gospel, we are preaching the gospel of how to get into heaven when you die

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All right, and we go to we go to everybody by ones by onesie twosies and we say here's how to get to heaven when you

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Die, here's how you get to have when you die. Here's your bus ticket. Here's a here's how you do it Okay. Now I have nothing against going to heaven when you die

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That's fine the preacher said that's fine to go to heaven when you die, but this is a byproduct

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This is something that falls out of a message that is bigger than we are Okay, the message is bigger than we are the kingdom is bigger than we are

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Repent the kingdom when John the Baptist preaches repent you for the kingdom of heaven What part of this repentance is discovering that you're not all that?

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Repent bow down The King is arriving. You're not the center of everything. Remember the

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Copernican Revolution The King is coming. We stand up in his presence. He comes now.

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He is a good King. He's a gracious King He's a forgiving King. He's a king who puts everything, right?

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But he's a king who puts everything right when we acknowledge his rightful place when we acknowledge that he is the king

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Then he work he does his work as the king. So his message is a corporate message

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He is not only the forerunner of the Messiah, but he's exercising this office by declaring the approach of a kingdom

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He is declaring this to the nation of Israel He's preaching to the nation The prophecy of Malachi said that the alternative to hearing

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Elijah's message would be that the earth would be struck with a curse All right If this didn't happen the earth is going to be struck with a curse

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The relevant command of God the fifth commandment and the true counterpart of this says that it is a command with a promise

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That your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you which is Deuteronomy 516

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So the honor your father and mother a good relationship between parents and children That's the command with a promise and the neglect of that command the father and fathers and children being estranged

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That is going to result in the land being cursed Now, why is our country under a curse?

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Why is our country being chastised right now? because of fathers and kids and and then and we want to respond

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I began by saying Christians have responded with inept or Things that make thing worse.

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Well, we're responding with traditional values. You can't fight demons with traditional values

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You can't do that. You need to the only answer is Christ and him crucified preaching gospel hot gospel straight gospel

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All right So the the relevant command so you have a promise and a curse and The way the promise is fulfilled and the way the curse is avoided is by preaching the gospel of the kingdom

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Which is what John the Baptist is doing The New Testament citation of this expands the promise that thou mayest live long on the earth

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Ephesians 6 2 and 3 all of which is to say that this is not just another message on the family

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This is actually a message about the politics of Christendom. That's what we're talking about.

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We're talking about the kingdom now keep in mind In Deuteronomy 5 and Exodus 20 in the

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Ten Commandments God promises the the fifth commandment is a command with a promise that your life may be long in the land

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So he's talking to Jewish children Gathered around the base of Mount Sinai and as they go into the land of Canaan as they're honoring their fathers

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That's a command fathers and mothers. That's a command with a promise that your life may be long in the land

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Centuries later the Apostle Paul is writing to a bunch of Gentile kids in Ephesus Which is in modern

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Turkey Asia Minor and these Gentile kids are given the same promise The fifth commandment applies to Gentiles too, and he says that your life may be long in the earth

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All right God's grace is expanding right and God's grace now includes New England and now includes the

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Pacific Northwest where I live Also keep in mind that Jesus when he comes to John the

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Baptist Is present and presents himself for baptism to John the

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Baptist. Remember what is the What is that baptism? It's a baptism of repentance

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Does anybody see the incongruity? John the Baptist did John the

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Baptist said you ought to be baptizing me What do you'd have to repent for Jesus was perfect but notice from the very this is the inauguration of the

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Lord of the ministry of the Lord Jesus and from the First moment of his ministry his public ministry.

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What is he doing? He is identifying with sinners All right. He baptized.

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We don't know how to repent Jesus repents for us Jesus didn't just die for our sins

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He lives the righteous life that we need to live and we can't live because we're broken.

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We're messed up We're we're fallen and so Jesus Theologians called this the act of obedience of Christ Christ's passive obedience was his suffering on the cross

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His act of obedience was his living a perfect sinless life The kind of life that we need to have lived and none of us did and that is imputed to you as well

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Do you see that it's not just the penalty Christ suffered the penalty for your sins You owed something to God penalty wise and Jesus suffered that penalty for you but you also when you were sitting up a storm you also owed

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God the perfect life that you should have been living instead of sinning and Even when you're forgiven that life still needs to be offered up to him.

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And so the life of Jesus is imputed to you Jesus repent Jesus does everything so when you when you become a

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Christian you are you are confessing that Christ is all Christ is everything Christ is my perfection.

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Christ is my obedience Christ repents perfectly Christ does everything for me And it's all imputed to me so Our temptation is to take passages like this one from Malachi and give them a radical and individualized meaning

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If you personally love Jesus Then you personally will have your children's hearts turn toward you and you will be turned toward your children this great eschatological announcement the turning point of all human history turns out to be all about you and your white bread family values and That's not what it's all about Now even though it is quite true as far as it goes the promise does land in your life

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The promise does land in your family the hearts of fathers really are turned toward their children the hearts of children really are turned toward Their fathers, but this is a downstream consequence of the gospel.

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It is not It's not the first order of things It is you preach the kingdom you preach repent repent for the kingdom and you can't have a kingdom without a king

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All right, so you repent because the King is arriving repent because Jesus is King Repent turn

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Surrender, what do you do when the King arrives? You lift it all up to him and then he does the saving

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He does the forgiving he does the restoration. He puts the dislocated bones back into place.

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He does all that What do we do? We do the surrendering. We just give it up.

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We repent and believe we repent and believe the great Baptist preacher

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Charles Spurgeon one time was talking to a man This is 19th century preacher.

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He was talking to a man who said well I when I got saved I did Jesus did his part and I did my part

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And that caused every Spurgeon was truly evangelical that caused a worried look in his eye

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What do you mean Jesus did his part and you did your part and the man cheerfully said well

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Jesus did all the saving and I got in the way That's Your part your part your part is to be the screw -up

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All right, that that's your part. And and we want to say well I repented better than the other guy

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No, no, no. No, that's not the way it goes This is a this is a cosmological revolution everything about the arrival of Christ is

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Momentous even though it'd be so Scriptures are very explicit about this.

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So we are to seek first the kingdom Seek first the kingdom and and so what

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I'm telling you here is not something I made up This is straight straight Bible seek first the kingdom and these other things are going to be added

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Seek first again Don't seek first the things that you want to make sure You don't want to make sure that the things you care most about get secured first and then in your leftover

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Over -budgeted time you seek the kingdom with the remainder do not seek the kingdom with the remainder you seek first the kingdom and Then you let the other things fall into place as God sees fit

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So you cannot make an omelet without breaking a few eggs as the fellow said But as another fellow observed, it's amazing how many eggs you can break without ever making a decent omelet

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Keep this in mind as we consider the following Matthew 6 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you

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All these things shall be added unto you. Now. Jesus here is talking about Kitchen table issues, right?

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What the politicians call kitchen table issues. He's talking about food and clothing He's talking about family issues.

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He's talking about family budgeting and He says seek first the kingdom and all these things will be added let

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God can feed the birds God God knows how to deck out the flowers. He knows how to take care of you

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Does Jesus ever talk about the family directly here? It's indirect seek first the kingdom and all these things family issues will be added

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But does he ever talk about the family directly? Well, yes, Jesus does Luke 14 25 through 35

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If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters

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Yeah in his own life. Also, he cannot be my disciple now that is kind of severe and It's often somewhat in the

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Gospel of Matthew where he says whoever does not love me more than father or mother so here in Luke whoever does not hate father or mother and then

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We remember were to honor father and mother well, so Love your wife as Christ loved the church whoever does not hate his wife

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If I were an atheist I would and I were in a debate with a Christian I would have fun with this Right.

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Love your wife as Christ loved the church But think of it this way and this has to do with all these things being added and this has to do with the nature of a

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Copernican Revolution, so so your father Your mother your wife your husband your children if you're a

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Christian, they all must be number two Everybody meet everybody needs to be demoted

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Well if because if they're not demoted if they're number one if your wife is number one if your husband is number one

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First thing is you're ripping them off Right if if you make anybody in your family into an idol

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What happens you've just removed yourself from fellowship with the source of all love

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Which means you don't have anything to give you they're number one with your little paltry Your idea of love but if they're number two then you're in fellowship with the

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God of heaven and if you're in fellowship with the God of heaven and his Store of love and grace is infinite

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Yeah, your family being number two is is blessed over abundantly blessed if you turn if you make them all number one then all of a sudden it's snarling and bitterness and Resentments and nothing ever goes, right?

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so If any man come to me hate not his father mother wife and Jesus says in Matthew whoever does not love father mother does not love me more than father and mother cannot be my disciple this is

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Sort of basic Christianity 101. This is this is this is what

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Jesus? Calls us to this is what he summons us to but it's not so that he's not

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Summoning us to this so that we then discover what a total ripoff it is

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All the seek first the kingdom and all these things are going to be added to you Seek first the kingdom and all these things are going to be added.

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So then Remember that remember that John said to repent because the kingdom was about to arrive

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So what will be the result of John's ministry the hearts of the fathers will be turned remember?

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So, how do we harmonize this with the radical demands of Jesus that we've been considering?

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That which is surrendered in death before God is always raised to life in God That which is surrendered in death before God is

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Resurrected to life in Christ in God This is true everywhere

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But especially true of the family it is mentioned by Malachi is one of the principal fruits of John's ministry

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And we don't get tripped up by that word idolatry because there are two kinds of idols two kinds of idols one kind of idol is when you have a statue of Molech or Baal or Chimosh in the backyard and That's bad

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The pastor thundered then Don't do that. So you you've got a statue

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It's like Gideon's father had a statue of Baal had a idol of Baal and repent. What did repentance look like?

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It looked like pulling pulling the idol down. All right, there are certain idols that have to go right if you're worshiping

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Carvings of stone and wood and you're bowing down to them. They have to be toppled they have to be you have to grind them to powder and take them out to the

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Brook Kishon and Dispense with them. Yeah, yeah, they have to be done but there's another kind of idol and That kind of idol would be things like family or your bank account or your vocation or your hobbies

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Are those those idols they must they are not to be annihilated. They are supposed to be demoted

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Right, right because Jesus is saying if you love father or mother more than me, you can't be my disciple

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So if you love your wife more than Christ, you can't be his disciple. Why because you're an idolater

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But if you repent what happens you don't repent by leaving your wife Right Yeah, again, the pastor said don't don't repent but by leaving your wife

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What you do is you Demote her or demote your job or demote your hobbies or demote those the things to the you reorganize the org chart

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That's repentance for that kind of idolatry is Reorganizing the org chart the other kind of idolatry you repent just by annihilating the idol

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You get rid of the idol and this if you're talking about family relationships you repent by putting things back

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All the dislocated things go back in the right place Remember the eggs and omelets if you are an idolater

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Which means that your citizenship is primarily in some earthly kingdom or other then you are not seeking first the kingdom

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You've not heard John's words about the arriving kingdom But we're not told to repent of behavior that is personally destructive because quote -unquote you need to get your life together

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You do need to get your life together, but Jesus is not a 12 -step program

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Jesus is not a vending machine Jesus is not someone who is there.

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He's not Santa Claus. He's not there to cater to your idea What needs to be done around here? That's not what you're what you're doing is you're coming into his presence and you're laying it all down You stop grabbing at and you don't grab at anything

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You just say I've got these pro I've got these problems in my family, I've got these problems at work

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I've got too many hours I've got you know What all the problems are and you don't have you don't put them down before the

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Lord when keep your thumb on them Right you you don't put it down say Lord. I've got these problem problems with my boss at work

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And here's how you need to fix it Or I've got these problems or challenges in my family and this is what you need to do

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No, you put them lay them all out before the Lord you just and then step back let go you're done

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So here they are Lord. I've made a mess You're like a two -year -old boy with a broken car

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Toy car you bring to your dad and you hand it over to him and you say fix it

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That's what you do Fix it and fix it your way Not fix it my way fixing it my way is how it got broken

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Okay So you do need to get your life together, but that you're I mean he's

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God This is this is what it boils down to the Lord is God and you're not The Lord is

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God and you're not so we're told to repent because the kingdom is near We're told to repent because the kingdom is near so If you live your life without reference to the kingdom

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Regardless of how conservative and traditional your family values might be you are only breaking eggs not making omelets

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Have you have you wondered? How it was that so much of the conservative?

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establishment Republican II world went off the edge of the cliff so quickly

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How did they collapse as quickly as they did on LGBTQ stuff or on all the woke stuff what?

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Something was wrong with their defenses beforehand Something was wrong early on it didn't this sort of collapse doesn't happen overnight

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All right, some there's a character in one of Hemingway's books Who was asked how did you go bankrupt and he said well first very gradually and then suddenly

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That's how you go bankrupt how did how did the Western world how did the United States of America go spiritually bankrupt?

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First very gradually and then suddenly the last few years have been the suddenly part

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Okay, but it was going on for a long time Before that the erosion was going on for a long time before that So God is the one who establishes our corporate citizenship in his kingdom

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And he has told us how to enter into that kingdom We acknowledge the look we acknowledge the the fact that Jesus is the king

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We acknowledge the fact that he is a sacrificial king. All right. He is the king who died for his people

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He is the king whose Foundation the foundation of his kingdom is the is the death burial and resurrection of the king of that kingdom that that's the foundation so we come to the king and we come to the king on the basis of the sacrifice of that king and We are received by that king in his glory.

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He was crucified buried Resurrected and he ascended to the right hand of God the

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Father where he is now Reigning and we come to that reigning king and we plead with him on the basis of the blood that he shed

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That's our entry. We say I have no right in my own name or in my own righteousness or in my own goodness

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I have no right whatever to appear in your courts. I Don't I don't have that right?

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I have no claim as the the hymn rock of ages puts it nothing in my hand. I bring simply to the cross

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I claim that's my only ticket. That's my only pass. That's that's the only thing that I can bring

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So God is the one who establishes our corporate citizenship in his kingdom And he's told us how to enter it and we enter it on the basis of the proclamation of the gospel

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I'm I just told you that's the gospel. That's the good news. It's not good advice. It's the good news Christ is

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King and he is King because he died. He's King because he was buried He's King because he rose and he's

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King because he was crowned King He in Daniel chapter 7 he comes into the presence of the

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Ancient of Days I saw one like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven and he comes into the

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Presence of the Ancient of Days and what did Daniel see the Ancient of Days gave

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Jesus Christ? universal dominion over every tribe every nation every language

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That's why he's king of Massachusetts Incidentally that was included. All right, that was included and so consequently we are enrolled as citizens in that kingdom now the consequences of John's ministry are described by Malachi and This description is obviously the work of the

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Spirit of God The hearts of the fathers will be turned to the children the hearts of the children will be turned to the fathers

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But again, this is this is a real consequence in real time, but it's downstream

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You plant the tree You tend the orchard then later you harvest the fruit

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Okay, so Preaching the gospel of the kingdom responding to the gospel of the kingdom laying out everything before the king

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That's all planting the orchard. That's that's all the initial stuff then as a consequence downstream from that Wonderful things start to happen in families wonderful things start to happen in villages and towns and communities and nations

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We do not try to build strong families in order to build a strong kingdom for God That is precisely backwards

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We do not try to build strong families in order to build a strong kingdom for God He has contrary to that.

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He has established an invincible kingdom and when we seek this kingdom first All these other things are added to us

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But that that's crucial seek first the invincible kingdom seek first the kingdom that man cannot touch

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Seek first the kingdom that does not care what Congress does Seek the kingdom that does that's impervious to whatever decision the

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Supreme Court might make Seek first the kingdom that has nothing whatever to do with what the governor of Massachusetts says or does not say

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Seek that invisible Invincible kingdom first and then these other things are going to be added

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The fact that these other things have not been added to us the fact that we live in such fatherless times

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Reveals our attitudes towards God the father Right. Do you see that? So if you

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Jesus says I'm the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father But by me so if we come to Christ the

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King if we submit to Christ the King if we Respond to the gospel of the kingdom and we come to Jesus What then happens is we come to Jesus and Jesus does what

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Jesus brings us to the father? We are reconciled to the father. We are restored to our father.

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We know with joy What a true father is What a true father is and one of the things that then happens is we start imitating what we're experiencing

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We start you become this is the theme throughout all of Scripture. You become like what you worship

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You become like what you worship In Psalm 115. It says they make idle.

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They're making idols They make idols that have eyes that see not ears that hear not

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Noses that smell not and then he says the psalmist says those that make them are like unto them

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If you make deaf dumb and blind idols and you worship them, you're going to become deaf dumb and blind if you make idols out of stone, you're going to find yourself with a heart of stone and If you if you gather here with God's people to worship the father in the name of Jesus Christ What's going to happen there?

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We all with unveiled face Unveiled face unmasked face. We all with unveiled face

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Behold the glory of God and we are being transformed Paul says from one degree of glory to another

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You become like what you worship if you worship God the Father through Jesus Christ You're becoming more and more

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Christlike if you worship Perverted idols you're going to become more and more perverted if you worship the idols of war

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You're going to become more and more bloodthirsty If you worship the idols of lust you're going to become lust consumed.

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You're going to be you're going to become like what you worship so in fatherless times

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What the thing that we need to do is we need to plant churches plant churches plant churches and worship the father

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Worship the father worship the father in the name of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit When that happens people are going to be worshiping

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God They're going to be restored to their father in heaven He's going to eat

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Jesus teaches us to pray does he not? Teach us to pray and when you pray say our father

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Which aren't in heaven and we can pray our father without those words sticking in our throat

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Because he really is our father and we're restored to the father and when we're restored to the father

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We start to have some inkling of what fatherhood is like It's Glorious the say it's the center of every it's the center of everything it gives it the father is the origin and source of all goodness and so consequently when we do this and fathers become more like fathers ought to be and They love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it and they can only love their wives that way because their

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Wives are number two Right going back to the earlier point their wives are number two so they love their wives as Christ of the church and wives respect their husbands as the church does

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Christ and Children start respecting and honoring their parents and being obedient to them and parents start providing and protecting you they do all the things in a biblical way

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Everything overflows into a glorious restoration Father hunger the kind of father hunger that we see in our culture today is one of the chief

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Symptoms of our our idolatry one of the chief symptoms of our

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Idolatry, it's the basis for almost all of our political and cultural follies and And we've gotten to the point where we don't want to hear anything even hints at our follies that even hints at our

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Difficulties and so constantly and this is one of the reasons why the politically politically correct people shout us down And it used but it used to be that 20 years ago late -night comedians secular late -night

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Comedians could say things that were on the nose Right, and I remember a commercial.

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I don't know what it was for. It was a bad commercial in that sense It was a great commercial and that I remember it vividly decades later

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But I don't know what it was advertising A couple of guys sitting on a park bench and this girl walks by and she walks by and sort of a

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Trick, you know dog collar clanking jewelry everything clank clank clank clank clank clank and These two guys are sitting there and then one of them stands up and yells down off -screen.

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He can't hurt you anymore So What is

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Why are you decked out that way? Why all the why all the? Accoutrements once it's the badges.

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It's the medals of father hunger That's what it is. All right, and we can't get back

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Without going back. We can't turn back without turning back. We can't be converted without turning around So this is the basis of almost all our political and cultural follies and Perhaps all of them it accounts for the growth of the paternalistic state

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But the solution is not to schedule numerous family retreats

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Again, not against family retreats, but that should be bad in cleanup Or did you see the difference?

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That's not what that's not where the heavy lifting is done The heavy lifting is done worshiping

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God worship God worship God That's that's the driving engine of all cultural renewal

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The solution is to announce preach and declare That the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our

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God and of his Christ And when you read those words in the book of Revelation, I hope you can't read them without handles glorious music coming to mind

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All right The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our

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God and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever But he's he's going to reign forever and ever because he's reigning now

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All right, is that we're not this is not pie in the sky when you die No, he's reigning now.

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He is the king now He is our Lord now and we worship him because he's worthy we come into his presence and we worship worship him because he's worthy of our worship and when we

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Rendered to him what God wants us to render to him That means the fundamental thing is put right and then

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God then sets to work putting all the other things, right? God's God says so now, of course

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He's the one that enables us to make the primary thing right also every good work is from him

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But we want to begin at the end We want to begin where the word says to begin

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We want to start where the word says to start and so we should listen to John the

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Baptist John the Baptist arrives Preaching he's saying repent your old way of thinking your old way of doing drop it drop it drop it why the kingdom is at hand the kingdom is near and It was

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Jesus came just a short time after that and he established his kingdom So we do not declare anymore the kingdom is near like it's around the corner

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We declare the kingdom is now the kingdom is now the king is King now

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Jesus is our Lord, which is the fundamental and basic Christian confession our father and gracious God We are very grateful to you for all your goodness to us.

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I pray that you would help us meditate on these things rightly I pray that we'd be able to take them to heart the way you would have us take them to heart