R1642 The Heart of a Father

We all could use some encouragement, and we'll find it together today in the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton about the heart of a Father. As we study God's Word together, know that we're here for you. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD.

24 hours a day, we'd love to pray with you and for you at 866-899-9673. And now, Dr. Don Wilton. God has put a word in my heart today about fathers, and I'm just telling you, get ready.

Not the word that I give. Just get ready. What I'm about to share with you is as important, as critical, as powerful, as relevant in today's world as one can possibly imagine. So I've really put myself in a box, but it's not me, it's the Word of God. I'm a dad. I love being a dad. I've been a dad for quite a few years now. And then on top of that, I'm not just a dad, I'm a granddad. So the Lord is adding to that role, and I'm going to call it a role. I'm a grandfather and I'm a father, and I'm looking out here today and I see lots of dads, grandfathers.

I see lots of young men who, God willing, maybe one day you'll become a dad. And I'm going to pray that whatever stage you're in, that you will never forget what I'm about to say to you. But you will also never forget that Dr. Don never said it. I'm not saying this to you. God is going to say this to you. So let's just pray. Lord, right now, I'm going to ask that your power and presence would be made known in a very real way. And Lord, you know how.

It may sound like we're talking about fathers and dads. But everybody is going to be blessed by this. I'm going to pray this prayer in Jesus' name.

Amen. Let's turn in our Bibles to 1 Kings. So you're going to need to go in the Old Testament. And I'm going to begin by asking a question before I read this passage.

1 Kings chapter 2. If you were about to die, what would you say to your children? What would be the last thing you would say to your kids?

That's an unfair question. Because judging by what I can see here, none of us right now that I can see, there may be some worshiping with us on Saturday evening by television. But as best as I can see, nobody here thinks they're going to die. I don't. I can tell you that right now. That is the last thing in my mind.

I actually don't even feel remotely like it. I actually feel quite well. But I had a really good friend who on Friday night had a very sudden heart attack. And thank the Lord, he's doing much better today.

It's very serious. In fact, everybody thought that he had died. He's in our church.

Many of you know Martin Wildman. Very serious heart attack. We all went rushing Friday night.

I rushed to the hospital. And I'm just telling you, beginning with his wife, Amy, who was with him. We really thought that he had left us and gone to heaven. But God has got other plans, and Martin is sitting up talking right now as I speak. The Lord has answered our prayer.

So I'm going to just ask this. If you were about to die, seriously, what would you say to your sons and daughters if you could speak to them just before you died? A lot of good things.

I mean, there's a lot of good things we could say. Here in 1 Kings chapter 2, we've got one of the most unbelievable accounts of a man that we all know about who is about to die. Let's just read it together. Bible says that when the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon, his son. I'm about to go the way of all the earth, he said. So, my son, be strong. Show yourself as a man and observe what the Lord your God requires. Walk in his ways and keep his decrees and commandments, his laws and requirements as written in the law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go. And the Lord may keep his promise to me that if your descendants watch how they live and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel. I'm going to explain that all to you. Now, may the Lord give us an understanding.

So, here's the picture. This is David, King David, and he's talking to his son, the new king, whose name is Solomon. Now, let me just clarify something. I learned many years ago that when you share the truth of God's word, you can preach to the apples and the oranges are going to get blessed.

Now, what does that mean? It means God's going to speak to all of us today. He's going to speak to men, to women, to boys, to girls, to mothers, to grandmothers, grandfathers. He's going to speak to widows, single people, married people, divorced people. He's going to speak to people from every walk of life. I will guarantee you that. You're going to let God speak to you?

And just to clarify, this story here is about Solomon, about Solomon who was a boy, a young man, being spoken to by his father. It's like me. Now, I know that we're living in this crazy world today, where Congress and all these political interest groups are trying to neuter every gender.

I just would like to make an announcement to you today. I'm a man. I'm all male. I'm a male man.

It's not like male in the box man, nor flying man. I'm kind of, this is the way God made me. And God loves me equally and co-equally on the same level.

He is no respecter of persons. David here could have been talking to his daughter. Do you know that this may shock somebody, nobody here? Do you know there are times that I talk to my daughter, Shelly, and I say to her, Sweetheart, this is what I expect of you.

Do you know this may shock somebody? I actually go and talk to my sons and say exactly the same thing to them. Here we've got a position, a picture, and David, this man is speaking to his son.

So I'm just going to show you what he said. God's going to speak to your heart. I want to show you the heart of a father. And when David, this father, spoke to his son and he was about to die, he brought into that conversation everything that had been brought into his life as a father. Dads are as mothers are. Dads are very precious people. Both my fathers are in heaven. My own dad and my father in law, I regarded them as my two fathers.

And I love both of them very, very much. Many of you knew both of them because this is where they lived and ministered and served. You know, I don't tell a lot of people, I just mention it today for the first time, but right at the end of my father's life, I'd done a lot, me and my brothers, with my dad.

I mean from Africa to places around the world to you name it. What do you remember of your father? I mean everything one can possibly imagine. I remember that phone call I got from my oldest brother and I ran over to my father's house and they were taking him out on a stretcher, a bed with wheels on it, and there was an ambulance with lights on outside the house. And I ran up and my dad was lying on that bed and he was very, very confused.

And I loved my dad. And I followed that ambulance down to regional hospital and it was just me and my dad. And we took him into this place and people came and started to attend to him and he was really hurting and he wasn't well and he was also getting very confused. And they put tubes in his arms and pipes in him.

And in the middle of all of that, he got so confused that he literally stood up out of that bed and started ripping these pipes out, just ripping them out. This was my dad. It was not the dad I knew. This was dad.

And he was feeling so bad. And I remember just walking up to my dad and putting my arms around him to try and calm him down, to hold him. And I said, it'll be okay, dad. And all he said to me was, he looked up into my eyes and he said, it's okay, son. And he began to calm down.

And he died not too long after that. That little phrase there, it's okay, son, came to me with a whole understanding of life. So I just want to do something very quickly. You ready? Now I've got 14 of these, 14.

So you need to write quickly or you need to go back to our web page, get the points. They'll be there for you. Write these down. When David brought in his son, what did this father understand when he said what he said?

Yeah, let me give them to you. Number one, he understood family. By the way, do you know that first Samuel chapter 17 and verse 12 tells us that he was the youngest of eight.

Eight! He was the pipsqueak. He was the little brother. He understood family. I wonder what David understood about family. This father speaking to his son before he died. I wonder what he brought to the table about family. Conflicts, joys.

Maybe he understood what it means to have a brother not talk to you for the past 10 years. He understood families. Brought that to the table. What did he bring to the table? Work!

First Samuel chapter 17 verse 15 says that the boy David tendered the flocks of his father. By the way, I'm not going to unpack that today. That's jolly hard work, eh? I've told you before, in Africa, I worked with 44,000 sheep. I got a little idea, but we had modern things, you know?

Can you imagine back then in those days? It was jolly hard work. He understood what it means to work. Be out there all night. Get up early in the morning.

Roll up your sleeves. What did he understand? He understood God's presence.

I wrote this down. First Samuel 16 verse 13. It's what the Bible says.

So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed David in the presence of his brothers. Can I just say this as an aside? You know what he also understood? You can have a whole family. God gives family members different assignments. Not all the same assignments.

That's just by the way. He understood that. Do you know that families' siblings can get jealous of each other? I know a family right now in which they're like four or five kids, and two of them, one of them's the daughter and the other one's the son, have done extremely well in business. I mean really well. And the other three, they're okay. They haven't done that well, but they're okay. They're getting by. And one of them's really jealous.

Plays up every time they together. What did this father understand? He understood the power of God's presence. So Samuel took the horn of oil, anointed him in the presence of his brothers.

Watch this. And from that day, the Spirit of the Lord came on David. So David here, this father is speaking to his son, to his daughter. And he's looking at him.

He's looking at her. And he's saying, I'm about to tell you something because I know what it means to live a life with the presence of God in my life. You got that? I'm telling you, that's powerful. He understood power. Power, P-O-W-E-R, power.

First Samuel chapter 19. Everybody wants power. He understood it. He understood opposition. And don't raise your hands here because I'm going to say, have any of you ever had anybody oppose you? You know, I think I'm the only one in this room. I've gone through my whole life. I've never had a single person come against me.

Yeah, right, and I just sinned in the sight of God and all my friends. Opposition is real, guys. You know where opposition comes from? It doesn't come from a slab of concrete. It doesn't come from a chair. It doesn't come from a TV. It doesn't come from a bank balance or a dollar sign. You know where opposition comes from?

Dipsticks. People. I'm telling you, people can be flat out ugly, man. I mean mean. Just, they'll go after you.

They'll eat your lunch. He understood it. He was hounded everywhere he went. He understood friendship. First Samuel chapter 19. He had this incredible friendship with Jonathan.

I mean, it's a beautiful friendship. That's what he was bringing when he spoke to his son. This was all in his background. He understood mercy. First Samuel chapter 26. Do you know that he could have taken the life of Saul, but he didn't.

He had mercy on him. Guys, if you don't have mercy, God's mercy, can I say this in American Southern? You ain't gonna make it. You don't have a spirit of God-given mercy in your life. You're not gonna make it. You're gonna become one seriously bitter, twisted up knucklehead. You're gonna go through life backwards.

You're gonna beat the submarines and tunnel underground. That's what you're gonna do. You're gonna be one of those people. You're just a grouchy grouch all your life. You're gonna moan, complain, go backwards, and chew on a lemon for the rest of your life.

That's what you're gonna do. I'm just telling you folks, this is gold. He understood what mercy is. Mercy is a spiritual gift. Mercy means the person who receives it doesn't necessarily deserve it.

Forgive the interruption. Dr. Wilton's message will continue in just a moment, but oh, how we celebrate that mercy that we receive from Jesus, and we want to share that with many people. Already, many of you have stepped alongside of us with our matching challenge here in November. If you haven't, discover more on our website at www.tewonline.org. You'll discover on our website we're a part of the ECFA, the Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability, and of course, as Dr. Wilton being the pastor of Dr. Billy Graham all those years, 20-plus years, there's a sense of commitment to integrity that you'll find at The Encouraging Word.

Discover more at www.tewonline.org. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Wilton. That's God's grace. God's grace is God's mercy. God showed me mercy because I don't deserve it. I'm a sinner.

I sinned against God. Well, he had this in his background. What did this father understood? He understood authority. Hey, hey, he was king, man. Listen, this guy could do anything he wanted.

Click your finger, click your finger, and it's done. He understood authority. Authority is a big issue in our world today.

Sons and daughters growing up, authority is an issue. He understood prayer, 2 Samuel 7. Replete right throughout David's life, this man sought the face of God in prayer. He believed that God not only heard our prayer, but he answers our prayer. He understood sin.

Guys, we're talking about David here. He committed adultery with another man's wife. He sinned in the sight of God when he spoke to his son on his deathbed, he had this understanding.

I don't know that there's a dad that has ever existed that ought not to have that understanding when you speak to your sons and daughters. But he also understood repentance. When he wrote that beautiful Psalm, he came before God, said, my sin is ever before me.

And this is the same person who covered himself in sackcloth and ashes. And he understood the only way that he could be reconciled to God as a believer was by repenting of that sin. And after Jesus came and died, the Bible says, if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us.

Are you teaching your sons and daughters that? What did he have in his understanding? Praise.

I'm on point number 12 if you're counting. Praise. Second Samuel 22, I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations.

I will sing praises to your name. What did he have? This father, what did he bring in his understanding?

What was his background? Did he just suddenly kaboom, kaboom? Yeah, hey, son, come here. I just want to talk to you.

No, no, this is dad. What did he have in his understanding? Friends love reading about the mighty men that surrounded him. What did he have in his understanding? Worship.

Second Samuel 24 and verse 18, I love this. Then the Lord answered David's prayer on behalf of the nation and the plague on the nation was stopped. He understood what it meant to worship the Lord. He understood when the Bible says God inhabits our praise. It's like God comes down in person by his Spirit and he enters us when we praise him.

We pray, we worship him, we intercede. So here's this dad, this father, yes, king, all the rest of it, and he's bringing all this life experience and he's about to die and he says, son, come here. I need to say something to you just before I die. I'm about to go. I'm going to die like all people are. I'm going to heaven. And I want to give you this word.

Here it is, ready? This is what this father said, five things. Number one, stand strong.

It's right there. So be strong, stand strong. Number two, man up.

I'm taking words right out of his mouth. Show yourself to be a man. I'm telling you, if his daughter was standing there, Hebrew text, same thing. Second verse, the same as the first. My daughter, woman up.

Be everything God has made you to be. Number three, quickly, number three, you got this one? Take note, take note. Look at verse three. It's what he says to his son.

He's about to die. He says, and observe what the Lord your God requires. Number four, this is another doozy, walk straight. Walk straight. It's right there.

I'm just kind of regurgitating. He says, walk in his ways. And one more, I'll close with this. Hold fast, hold fast. Keep his decrees and commands.

Keep them. What a powerful message from the pulpit as Dr. Wilkins has been teaching. Now he steps into the studio to share his heart. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name, my friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you just prayed along with a pastor, Dr. Wilton has free resources for you. If you've given your life to Christ or rededicated your life to Jesus, why don't you call us? 866-899, word is the number.

That's 866-899-9673. Or connect with us online at tewonline.org. Did you know that you can listen to Weekly Words of Encouragement written by Dr. Don Wilton on YouTube? Follow us each week as Dr. Wilton brings you Words of Encouragement for the week ahead. Just type in YouTube's search bar Weekly Words of Encouragement, Don Wilton Devotional. We hope that this will be a blessing to you. The Encouraging Word is a viewer and listener-supported ministry.

Thank you for listening today. On the next edition of The Encouraging Word, Dr. Wilton takes us to the book of Acts, chapter 13 about the heart of a missionary. Join us and bring a friend. Between now and then, let's stay connected on our website. That's tewonline.org. the encouraging word