A Word From Pastor on Fathers Day 6-16-2024

Morning, everyone. How are you all doing this morning? I appreciate this

what I assume to be a happy Father's Day card right here in the pulpit.

Thank you all. I'll check that out after the service. How many

of you appreciate your father? He's here today and you appreciate him. How

many of you appreciated your father that has going on to be with the Lord,

or that has passed on. There's a lot of people in this building

this morning reminiscing of days gone by. A precious man in your life is

missed this morning, or perhaps there's somebody in this building that is not missing

that man. I hope you're not that person that had a mean man as

a father. There are people in this world that have had mean men for

fathers. Brother road Cap, I have no idea why Joshua is looking at

you right now. No, but we have been blessed with good fathers.

Is there anyone in the building that would like to stand up and say I

was blessed with a mean father. There's anybody would admit that you are cursed

with a mean father. But we are blessed with good fathers. From what

I can tell. Unless I've missed something, I try not to miss too

much, but if I've missed something, I'm sorry if I need to apologize

to one of these children. I'm sorry if I misspeak right now. But

from my perspective, it looks like everybody in this building has been blessed with

a good father, just oppressious man in their life, and I'm thankful for

that. Be sure to tell your father Happy Father's Day today? Can you

do that for me? Be mindful of them and be thankful for them.

How many of you have had very significant spiritual fathers in your life at some

point? Heymen, how about even now you have a very significant person in

your life for a spiritual father. We appreciate our spiritual fathers. What about

the patriarchs and the men of God that we read about in the Bible?

Aren't they significant? Aren't they special? Just so special? I appreciate all

of these men of God. If you'll notice, they were all hard working

men, some of them had great senses of giver, and some of them

could be very difficult to get along with. You'll find that the apostle Paul

was one that a lot of people probably had a problem with at times because

he was a disciplinarian. I'm thankful for fathers that are disciplinarians. I'm thankful

for fathers that are hard working. That's hard to find anymore. There's no

longer distinction between the ways of fatherhood and motherhood. In fact, if it

hasn't been merged so perfect that it's undetectable who's playing which role, I mean,

it's perverted or twisted. The norm is for it to have been merged

to the point there's no distinction between the roles, and then it goes beyond

that to be in twisted, perverted. Best case, in this world,

today it's merged. There's no distinction. But from the very beginning God intended

for there to be a distinction between the roles in a family. The father

has a role right not to play. He has a part in this thing

that we call life. He is a part in that family, a very

significant and important part. In May, we celebrated mothers. Today we celebrate

fathers. We appreciate the role that mother plays in our lives. Right,

we still appreciate our mothers. We appreciate each mother that's here this morning.

We appreciate our spiritual mothers that are here this morning. But father always seems

to be the ultimate disciplinarian in this life. Have y'all noticed that, I

mean mothers threatening their children with father, father is gonna be home. After

a while, I finally learned to just let my wife do some of the

discipline during today, so that I wasn't the bad guy always. But sometimes

fathers are perceived as the bad guy. That's one of the reasons why this

generation despises fathers and why some of the modern programs such as The Simpsons and

other sitcoms and things, downplayed the role of the father. They tried to

paint him out to be a dufus or a door or a dweeb, or

just somebody that deserved disrespect. And that's how you tear down a family.

That's also how you tear down a country. But I appreciate strong fathers.

Strong fathers they have spines of steel. The spiritual father that have a spine

of steel that he's not worth having at all. In fact, we were

supposed to be at Dominika today and that was the message that I was going

to preach, Spines of steel. I haven't thought about that until right now.

Spines of steel. I believe it was Wednesday, sometime this past Wednesday,

when the Lord brought that thought to my heart, how many of you

had a father with a spine of steel, not the backbone of a red

worm or the backbone of a slug, But they had the backbone of a

steel of steel. Whether they were a Christian or not, they just had

a backbone. But that's what they're trying to do. They're trying to tear

down the men today in today's society. They want to tear the man down.

They don't want anybody standing up for anything. You know. The saying

goes like this, if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.

You know. I don't want to just fall for anything. I feel

like there's something worth standing for. Don't you feel like that. I feel

like standing up or our word that we're holding in our hands this morning,

the Word of God. I feel like standing up for our church family.

I feel like standing up for my family, standing up for you all,

standing in the gap, making up to head. There's something to stand for.

I don't understand why people don't want to stand today, and I'm not

preaching that message, but fathers have been taught to not to be a disciplinarian.

Fathers of this generation have been taught to not be disciplinarians. I want

you to understand that you are blessed right now to have follows in your life

that are disciplinarians. What I'm telling you this generation, you step outside of

these four walls and go into society, you walk into the workplace, you

will find very few people that believe in discipline and their children anymore. And

you also find very few passions that believe in church discipline anymore. That's a

very unpopular subject, isn't it very very unpopular subject? I can tell right

now we went from smiling to frowning just because of the word discipline. That's

the spirit of this generation. I know you're the children of God. I

know you're the people of God. But as people of God, we must

refuse to be attained it by the mindset. We must admit that in every

hole in this church and in every Pentecostal church today, there is a dampening

and a darkening spirit that comes on that congregation as soon as the word discipline

is used. Twenty to thirty years ago, that was not so so.

With a gift of decernment, may we right now understand as a congregation that

has may we understand that we cannot afford for our minds and our spirit to

be damp and to darken. When somebody uses the word discipline, you know,

the Bible said that chastening is not pleasant at that immediate moment, but

afterwards it will yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Sometimes the atmosphere thickens and

our roads and mouths dry out when we realize Father is present to discipline us,

and our heavenly Father, which does have a hallowed name, he does

have a holy name. Hallowed be thy name. Our heavenly Father is such

a wonderful father. But he also disciplined us. He disciplines us, And

the Bible said those whom he loves, he chastens, he corrects, he

disciplines. And I want to tell our fathers, may I encourage you to

continue disciplining your children. Discipline. Disciplining your children includes training them up in

the way that they should go. This is a society that just says I'm

gonna get my degree, I'm gonna find my career, I'm gonna come home

after dark after working extra hours. I may or may not see my children

who are shut up in the gaming room, or my children who are shut

up doing homework in the next room. I might stick my head in the

door and say good night, kid and give them the thumbs up. That

is not being a father. A father is someone who spends time with their

child. A father is someone who disciplines their child, and a father is

someone who has a good time with their child. You have to have an

even balance in this thing we call life. You know, you think about

these fathers that are present this morning. Some did not have good, solid,

spiritual upbringing. And there's no excuse for any father ever being sorry to

their children. There's no excuse whatsoever for any father ever not training their child.

There is a self consciousness, there's a self awareness of hey, this

is my offspring. This thing is called life. Men are built to work.

Men are bent towards being adventurous. Men are built to be constructive.

Men are built to be providers. Men are built to be protectors. It's

in your DNA. You're built for it. You just have to apply yourself.

And one of the things that we can do in order to make sure

that we are effective as fathers is read the Bible. There's been a lot

of great men of God raised up in the homes where their fathers were not

spiritual at all. They weren't involved in any religion. They certainly weren't involved

in the Christian religion. They have no spiritual instruction, no spiritual insight to

pass on. But somebody got born again down the road, the child of

that person that deprived them of so much. So yes, they're depraved,

they're the priblem But yet they get born again and in them when they are

a new creature. They have a desire to read the Bible. And I've

said this before. When you're reading the Bible, be gender specific. Look

at your gender, the destructions for your gender. Look at what the Bible

says to you. Look at what the apostle says to you. Look what

Jesus says to you. Look what the writers said, the prophets said to

you as women, or you as men, or you as children, or

you as parents, and you as preachers, and you as prophets, you

as teachers. Look look at your role, especially when you're reading it says,

fathers provoke, not your children under wrath. It could have said,

but there's a natural tendency for fathers to provoke their children under wrath. So

we know that the things that are written in the Word of God, they

can be applied to both genders. Right, But whenever the Holy Ghost is

moving in a certain direction. I mean, I've thought about this a lot

in recent days and said wamant of the weaker vessel man. If you don't

love the Word of God, you don't believe the word of God to be

the final authority. That can almost seem quite offensive to me, who is

even a very masculine man. I mean, and you can take that almost

as an insult. But it's the Bible. It's the word of God,

and it's true, and we must admit it. Half the battle is admitting

we need instruction, we need help, We need instruction. And you will

never become a better you father, or a better you mother, or a

better you person. And unless you allow yourself to grow into develop spiritual maturity

is a problem today. People are perishing for a lack of knowledge. They

simply don't know the Bible. So whenever I realized there were some things in

my life that I did not want to pass on to my children, there

was some patterns that necessarily I didn't feel like would be a good pattern for

my family. There's some of you. You didn't have fathers that were saved,

You didn't have a good pattern, but you can look to the Bible.

I don't know that there's anybody in this building this morning that does not

have a good pattern in your life. But if you are one that I'm

speaking to right now, there is no excuse. This book right here is

the pattern. And you could read this enough and fall in love with God

enough and love your family enough that this Bible itself will teach you how to

be a good father. If there was never any other self help book written,

if there was never anybody's biography written, that, there was never anybody's

testimony, given, that book right there will show you how to be the

perfect father. In fact, the Bible said from the very beginning of time,

built in the dna of man, was here's the garden. Now keep

it right. So as you look at that, it teaches you to be

a hard worker. And what we've been trying to teach people here is don't

ever just roll over and play dead, because ignoring your problems will not develop

a solution, and it certainly will not solve them, and it certainly will

not dissolve the situation. Are y'all listening to pastor right here? Ignoring the

problem. A lot of fathers today they just played postil, which means they

played dead. I didn't father that child, I didn't bring that child into

existence, So I ignore this letter that says I need to pay child support.

What I'll do, I'll move five or six streets over and make sure

nobody finds out my address so that they can't garnish my wages and get me

this document and this document in order to get that child support. Just to

ignore it. And that's what a lot of people do. They ignore the

discipline, they ignore the correction, they ignore the instruction, and you're never

going to become better. But we've been trying to teach you. Yeah,

it's hard right now for everybody in the world financially. It's difficult for everybody

in the row financially. But I remember a period I think it was around

the mid nineties when it was difficult for everybody financially as well off. I

also remember prior to that, sometime in the eighties. I vaguely remember things

were hard on people financially. But what we've been trying to teach you to

do you have to hustle. I'm not telling everybody to be entrepreneurs or everybody

just to work from sun up to sundown, but I am telling you the

hustle. You can't lose your house, you can't lose your automobile, you

can't lose that source of transportation. You can't. You know, quitting is

not an option, and sending mama out to the workforce to make sure it

happens is an option, but that's not optimum. It is an option sending

mama out to help, but she is not to be the primary bread winner.

In fact, when we work our family budget, and it's always been

this way, we work our budget solely on my income. The same thing

for you that have spouses, you husbands, have spouses that are working,

that budget should be fixed to just your income. And then if you have

a surplus and you go out to Kover's on Sunday night, it's because you

have the extra income. And that's why you see some of us we take

on the lawns. Well. I think one thing we have taught some of

you in the last two years is you can carry money around in your pocket

if you won't. I think everybody in this building now has figured out that

if it's flipping chickens, or if it's buying a five hundred dollars mower or

one thousand dollars mower. We're in South Florida. You can pick up six

or seven lawns to do a month very easily. You can supplement that income.

There's other things that you can do, right And it's getting real quiet

right now. But this is instruction. So the Bible said he that provideth

not especially for his own is worse than an infidel and had to party from

the faith. I think about the fathers that we've all had, Brother James

Harrison, sister, we want your father's name, Frank, Brother Frank,

Brother James Harrison's sister, Walker, what was your father's name? Brother Andrew

is a great provider, great providers, and God hasn't decided that we as

fathers are to stop providing for our family. Right. And so if we're

living in tough times, here's what fathers have taught us. That the tough

get going, we get up earlier, we stay up later, we work,

we drive. If we have to swing a weed eater in somebody's yards

or get this, it's not that our wives have to clean houses. That

we might have to clean houses, right, I mean, if we have

to get a second job, if that twenty five hours a week or thirty

hours a week ain't cutting it, we might have to get a second job.

I don't know when's the last time I've worked one job. I think

I got four or five going on right now, which includes pastor in the

church. But I know that God will help you do that that he has

so listen it for you to do. I do know God will help that

thing that He has ordained for you to do, and that's to be a

father. You know, if you have pro created, you are responsible for

that creation. If you have offspring, you are responsible for that offspring.

I personally believe it is until you take your last breath, because in the

Bible, if the Bible will teach you how to do these things, the

Bible says that a good man will leave an inheritance to his children's children.

Right. So about the time I think, well, I could have retired

at forty, and I did someone I was pretty much set at liberty financially

at the age of forty. But then whenever I read that, brother Gabriel,

I say, oh my, oh my, a good man will leave

an inheritance for his children's children. And I look over there at Mike,

and I realize, man, I've got the hustle. Is that speaking of

monetary things, but it's also speaking of spiritual things. There's so many things

that our children can inherit from us, like this, being spiritual in church,

being on fire, having a prayer life, not meandering and mos in

around. But being diligent in business. The Bible said, see a man

diligent in business, he shall set before kings, not commoners, not mean

men. The Bible said, which is common men, he shall set before

kings. Well, we may not ever set before Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump

or some other king, but we can set before the kings and the queens

in the family of God and the presence of the Lord. To me,

that's enough. So I don't want to just raise my children and say,

and here's the rest of that scripture. I don't want to just raise my

children and say, well, I've done what I should, and now we'll

see how they do with their kids. I had a close friend of mine

not many years ago. He said well, I can't wait till I get

my last child out of my house. And I thought, I thought,

I said this, Sister Howell, I said, man, I don't understand

that mindset, of that kind of thinking. I can't wait till I get

them out of my house, till we don't have to buy groceries for them,

we don't have to provide for them. And I thought, man,

it'd be all right with me if they all moved into my house. And

Sister House said, I'm glad to wash all of their laundry. I can't

bear the thought of them leaving the house. But you know, we gotta

battle these spirits and we gotta ward them off. We gotta ward them off.

We're not talking about like a witch casting garlic. We gott to ward

off these spirits and resist them against the spirit. I'm telling you, we

gotta resist it. We gotta be against that spirit. We gotta resist it,

we gotta fight against it, boarded off, rebuke it. The name

of Jesus Us, right, And there's there's spirits that are trying to keep

us from doing what we're supposed to do and be and who we are supposed

to be. And so that's what the spirit of this world wants you to

do. Fathers. It wants you to lay down and quit. It wants

you to give up. It wants you to say, the financial strain and

the financial burden is too much. I'm gonna throw my wife at this world.

If its shreds or so be it. We'll just all end up hopeless,

or we'll end up all twisted and you know, freak. It's like

a freak show. Will end up, their rains will end up just like

everybody else in the world. I don't want to do that. I want

to be an upstream Christian in a downstream society, don't y'all. I'm gonna

swim upstream. I want to go against the green. I want to fight

against the spirits of this world. Well, that being said, we were

supposed to be in Dominika today. Okay, Sister Rachel, brother Na Thing

and their family got terribly sick. Now, God works in mysterious ways.

God works in mysterious ways, And I want you to think about your perspective

on this life. It could be wrong the way you're thinking about things could

be wrong, aren't you. For example, Brother Nathaniel and his family got

violently vehemently sick. Now faith faith, faith, faith, faith, faith,

There's no way God's in that. Okay, Let's let's be deep rooted

Christians and not shallow rooted Christians. With Brother Jeremy how especially and even with

Brother Nathaniel, especially with Brother Jeremy, how it would have taken that from

me not to leave this country. Everybody that knows me knows I'm up bracking.

I'm just driving a point home because at three point thirty, what I

call Brother Nathaniel and I said, kubomainize up. We're dressed, we're ready

to go. We're headed to your house, he said, Papa. Sister

Rachel is willing to go. We're willing to try to push through it.

She's been throwing up since ten thirty. I knew right then we'll know one.

I've been trying to prepare all night long. I was mentally prepared,

spiritually prepared, and got down and prayed from two am to three am.

And I mean I was ready to navigate the terrain of that country. We're

ready. Pray and say, God, you know these lives will be in

my hands. I need you to give me wisdom. I need you to

give me desernment. Did my homework so that we could be prepared. What

I'm saying is we were prepared for what light ahead. We didn't procrastinate.

We were prepared, all right. And then he says, I'm Papa,

to be honest with you, I'm ready to go. We can go.

I'm just letting you know. I believe I'm going to be sick too.

It's coming on me. It wasn't about two hours later, and he was

terribly sick about the time we would have been taken off. Is violently,

vehemently, violently throwing up sick. Then his other two girls, two girls

get and his other daughter ends up getting The entire family gets it. That's

what it would have took to keep us from leaving this country. I don't

know how God could be in that, but that's what it took. Because

to be honest with you, when I hung up the phone and I said,

well meet me, I said, you and I can go, but

you still look pretty weak yourself. But I guess I can go. And

then I said, now I guess I won't. I'll just wait. There

must be a reason for this, So there must be a reason that we're

here today. Maybe God I needed to receive this card. Maybe God knew

that I needed to be here for you. Maybe God knew that there was

some trouble that awaited us over there. And my point in this is sometimes

you had to say, Lord, you know how strong my will is,

you know how strong my passion was, you know how strong my desire is.

But I'm willing to surrender to your will. Father. I'm willing to

surrender to your will. Father. I don't like it. It upset me.

I didn't get angry at Brother Nathan and his family, or sister how

or anybody. But yesterday, what time did you come see me, Brother

Samuel? Five pm? I've been feeling pretty good all day, but I

felt like I was coming down with that sickness. Brother Samuel showed up around

that time and he said, how are you feeling? Pop said, Brother

Jesse's fixing the preach to us. I wanted to talk to you all about

something about the spirits of this world that are trying to taint our minds,

of pollute our minds. We had to resist that stuff, disrespect and authority,

not receiving instruction, not humbling ourselves. I had to surrender to the

will of God. I had to accept, Hey, this is God's shutting

us down for some reason, even though we have five thousand dollars on the

line. Well, the end of that story is miraculously and through dear sister

Rachel, we got all of our five thousand dollars back. That should not

have happened graceful, but we did. So you know what's just how it

broke down a crowd going the Thynians stay road eating and said, I didn't

think i'd get to go over again because that money was gone, and she

started breaking in. I knew where a heart life. She said, now

get to go. So then God showed me it was really in her heart

to go. So I've learned some things, sister Wood. But brother Samuel,

he came over. He said, how are you fellow BOMSA said,

well, be honest with I think I'm coming down with that Bugerybody's guy and

I'm just not fitting too well. Well, while he was in there being

sand, just talking and we're all talking about thirty five minutes later, I

get deathly sick, as sick as I've ever been in my life. And

they all noticed my color changes. They noticed I went from looking ten to

very pale and turning gray. I said, man, I'm trying to sit

here and act like everything's okay, but y'all keep that. No, I'm

not okay. I'm not feeling okay. I'm getting very sick. And so

Brother Nathaniel what I did after he left, I said, God, I

need you to prove to me that you can took care of me over there.

And I ended up over there. And at one point, sister How,

I walked through the room and I was sitting rich and back up in

the chair like this, when my eyes fixed and just zoled out and I

was praying deep of my soul. Church. Thirty minutes later, says to

How came to the fifth Wille where I had moved to, and she said,

what's happened your colors back? You look great? Man, Well Darren

the night, Brother Jesse, I felt something happening. I'm gonna tell y'all

I feel better right now than I have been the last four months. Thank

you long so I know we had enough power of God. Are you getting

it? Don't be shallow, root and simpleton. I'm a lot wiser than

you are, and there's a reason why I'm not burning. Thirty minutes here.

I'm telling you right now, we have the power of God to be

ill. I'm proved positive we have the power of God to go over there

with the door virus and be healed. I can be preaching and Dominico right

now as you walk and tell we have the faith to be healed. But

there was a reason for it, and I feel the Holy Ghost in this

place. I don't understand why God does the things he does. I don't

understand the mysteries of God. But if I could understand my God, he

wouldn't be my God. The Bible said, his ways are pasted finding out.

So I don't know why you're going through what you're going through, why

you're facing what you're pacing, while you're up against what you're up against.

But I know that you're God's child, and that God is greater than the

sickness, greater than the disease, greater than the problem. God's bigger than

all of that. You've got a mighty big Father. You got a mighty

big Father that is able to take care of everything, everything, every problem,

every temptation. If you'll let him have it, he'll take care of

it. I feel the Holy Ghost as I say this, something happened to

me. I slept last snip better than I've slept him four months. Not

that I have a problem sleeping most of the time. There in the night,

I wake up three or four times a night. I did not wake

up once less, Brother Nathaniel, he healed me, just showed me that

if there ever comes a time, you and I are over there. And

I know I could get sick next week. I know I could get sick

tomorrow. But I'm proved positive that he healed me to be here today.

And I proved positive because I asked him as serious as I could be.

And my wife walked in on me when I was commuting as a prophet with

his God, and I said, I need you to prove to mean God

that you can raise me up to preach in a foreign country. And that's

what he's done. I'm telling you, Bethel, we're blessed. I feel

the Holy go sit in this place. We are blessed. And I don't

know why I keep feeling like saying this, but strong leadership is not a

curse. It is not a reproach upon any people. It is a blessing.

Don't let anybody save you for it. Don't let anybody makes you feel

dumb because you have strong leadership in your life. I'm thankful that we have

a savior that we call Lord and Master. I'm thankful that we have strong

leadership in our life. I feel the Holy Ghost in this place. Now

before brothers, y'all may sit down, because you're gonna want to do this

before brother Jesse preaches, because I know we're gonna probably be in the altar

when he gets dub preaching. Not only is the father the disciplinarian. Are

y'all in a hurry? Okay? Not only is the father the disciplinarian.

Not only is the father the provider and the protector, he is also the

clown of the family. Everybody in this house knows it to be true.

There's nobody as goofy as dad, guys. I'm fixing to do the unthinkable

and the unimaginable to you guys. Somebody opened this thing for me. Wow,

somebody opened this one for me. Fixing to do the unthinkable and unimaginable.

If you are a father, I want y'all to see how awesome the

dad's a Bethel Hole and his church are. Because I'm fixing to say something.

Okay, now, who could not do this? I want to show

y'all how awesome the dads are of the Bethel Holdes Church. If you are

a father, amen, you have a child, a stepchild, or whatever

it is you have, come on up here Father's enjoyment. We've got a

Father's Day present for y'all. This is the honor that you receive for being

the clown of your family. Mister Jokester, Brother Jesse, brother Sam.

Just start passing them out to the jokesters. Not only is Dad a hard

worker and a disciplinarian, he is also the jokester of the family. Brother

Thomas stared as one of the coolest men I've ever known. He's very serious

about God. He's very serious about truth and holiness. But if you ever

get off of Brother Thomas, get over here in the front. I can't

think of a bigger I've had better clown as a But if you ever get

off of brothers stare by yourself. This guy is bonkers, literally bonkers,

literally nuts. I need some more men to come over here on the ride

over here because he balance this out. That's right, sisters, Philip,

now, Philip, bout you behind now come up here. Ain't us daddy,

ain't o be in this world in the next month. Thank you,

brothers. Brother Dwaane, you are a good sport. You make a great

clown. Brother. Is there anybody hiding out? Anybody hiding out? Anybody

been like a dad to somebody? Anybody? Only Ethan wrote yet would be

stupid enough. I've met silly enough to say, Pastor, I thought I

was gonna get back with this. Okay, guys, try to get in

here a little bit closer. Now we're gonna do the ultimate goofy picture.

All right, let's give a head laugh of appreciation to an awesome guy.

Poy kep final say hey, mad you're awesome. Thank you. We love

you. Bethel, You're a great church. Guys, keep that please so

you can remember me. Now, what I want y'all to think about is

every time I preach, I've got the biggest nose of them all. Go

remember that. Come on, brother Jesse to deliver the word of God.

We appreciate this man of God this morning.