Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Sermon Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our question of Israel, the children of Israel, when they're going through the wilderness and in Deuteronomy the first three chapters talks about the history and recounts much of what they went through. And this one passage, verses 21 to about verse 33, caught my attention for today and the Lord seemed to lay this on my heart for this hour. Verse 21. Behold the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee.

Go up and possess it as the Lord God of thy fathers. Have said unto thee, Fear not, neither be discouraged. And ye came near unto me, every one of you, and said, We will send men before us and they shall search us out the land and bring us word again by what way we must go up and into what cities we shall come. And the saying pleased me well and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe, and they turned and went up into the mountain and came under the valley of Eskel and searched it out. And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down unto us and brought us word again and said, It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us. Notwithstanding ye would not go up but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God. And ye murmured in your tents and said, Because the Lord hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.

Whither shall we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, The people is greater and taller than we. The cities are great and walled up to heaven and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anacoms there. Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. The Lord your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes. And then doth bear his son in all the way that you went until ye came into this place.

Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God. Look at that first phrase of verse 33, Who went in the way before you. What is interesting in verse 31, we're giving here insight that the role of a father to his son and much of what a father does in relationship not just to his son but to his children is used as an illustration to show the way our heavenly father treats us. The two are so similar and by the way do you understand one of the ways that we learn how to be the best possible father is to understand how our heavenly father treats us.

It is how God has treated and blessed and helped you all those years in the wilderness. So we want to talk about that today as we share God's word. Lord we love you and on Father's Day I pray that you would help us. Lord I know that this is a difficult day for some that might not have had a good relationship with their father. And Lord for many of us we've been blessed with good fathers. Lord I pray as we look into your word we would understand literally the lengths and the depths that you have gone for us. Lord I pray as we look at the role of a father to his children may we be reminded of the role you've played in our lives. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. So one of my questions and I thought this was interesting in verse 31 where he describes literally how what he had done for the children of Israel was just like a father what he would do for his children. I began to look through these verses beginning where we read and realized there's principles everywhere to show us what fathers do for their children. Number one I want you to look at verse 21 if you will. The Bible says, Behold the Lord thy God had set the land before thee. Look at verse 26 and verse 24. not withstanding you would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God. Look at verse 25, the end.

It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us. Look at verse 33, who went in the way before you. Principle number one this morning, and I want us to understand, fathers want the best for their children. Now children don't always think that. But do you know, when you're a godly father, you want the best for your children. The Bible says in verse 21, verse 25, verse 33, literally that God had given this land, He had it all prepared. He literally knew that this would be the best thing for them and our heavenly Father, He wanted the best for the children of Israel, but they kept rebelling against it. And I want you to understand, I'm thankful that I had a father in my life that always wanted the best for me.

The best for me. And you and I need to understand, if you've been blessed with a dad like that in your life, we ought to thank God for our earthly father that always wants the best for us. Us men sometimes, we don't always just, we're not thinking in the same system and we're not thinking as fast as our wives do sometimes and sometimes we get things wrong. Jean Graves was the name of this lady. I thought this was interesting. She said, my family was viewing old slides and one of the old slides flashed on the screen that caught everybody's attention. My father was wearing his favorite golf shirt and he was holding me at the tender age of three weeks old.

The look on his face on that picture told everything. There's my prized possession, my father said as we looked at that slide. I was so touched and smiled at him as he continued and my dad said this, I wonder whatever happened to that golf shirt.

There's my prized possession and this young lady just touched and he said, I wonder where that golf shirt is. Us men sometimes, well, you might not always see it and we might not always say it the right way and we might not always put it the right way but I'm here to say that if you're a good father and a godly father, that fathers always want what's best for their children. Oftentimes as fathers, we can't just give them what they want because we want what's best.

Fathers want the best for their children. God had given them the best land but they rebelled. Notice number two, fathers love their children even when they rebel.

Do you know that? Notice if you would, verse 26, notwithstanding, God says ye would not go up but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God. What's interesting, they rebelled against the commandment of God and the next verse doesn't say, well, I'm done with you, forget you. Dear friend, I'm here to say I am so glad that when I had years that I rebelled and at times when I've rebelled that I had a father that he didn't like that I rebelled and he certainly let me know it and did everything he could do to keep me from it but he still loved me even when I rebelled. And may I tell you this morning, your heavenly father loves you even if you've rebelled.

He loves you no matter what. Thought this was interesting, a man named Kurt Smith said this about his dad. He said, my dad was a teacher at a community college. Four students walked in one day halfway through the American History Test that my father was giving at the community college. Sorry, they said, we had a flat tire on the way. A very understanding and wise man, my dad said that if you guys can just answer one question correctly, I'll not only not make you continue and take the test from the middle of this class but I'll give each of you an A, automatic, if you can just answer one question. These four young men agreed so my dad handed each of them a piece of paper, placed them in four separate corners of the room and he wrote down the question that they all had to answer, which tire was flat.

To which Kurt Smith said, they all failed that class. Isn't it something that sometimes fathers, they kind of know when their children are trying and rebelling? May I say, even when they're four and eight and 12 as mine are, you know when they're trying to rebel. You know what's something about being a dad, you love them anyway.

You love them so much you wanna try to teach them the truth and show them how bad it can end up but no matter what they do, you still love them. And dear friend, you might be here and you say, you don't know some of the mistakes I've made in my life, I'm here to tell you your heavenly father still loves you even if you've rebelled. Number three in this passage, I want you to see that fathers love their children even when they complain. Look at verse 27 if you would, notice here. And ye murmured in your tents, ye murmured. Here's God led them out of Egypt in bondage and had provided food and had done all these things and then they got inside their tents and complained.

After all God had done, then they complained about it. Do you know that sometimes being a dad, you can do and do and do and provide and provide and provide and most of the time our children have no idea what we go through to provide for them. A man will work hours and hours and hours to provide and then his kids will grow up and say dad was never home. A lot of times children don't understand and oftentimes as dads we work hard and we're doing things that they don't fully understand and they don't get really and all these things and then we have to hear them complain. And you know what's often hard as a dad, sometimes you just wanna, and like let me slap some sense into you.

One day when you get old and you have your own demons around the house, you're gonna understand what it's like to get up and come in late and hear you complain that we don't have this kind of house or that kind of car and so-and-so, their family has this. Dear friend, can I say sometimes even they complain, us dads, as much as it hurts, we still love them. Isn't it amazing that a heavenly father, as good as he's been to us, sometimes we get into our little tents and we complain about our lives. Isn't it nice to know that even when we've done that and it's a sign of such spiritual immaturity, when we complain in our little tents, God still loves us. May I say to you dads, you good godly dads out here today, thank you for loving your kids even when they complained about stuff.

You know the day's gonna come, they'll know and understand. Number four, I want you to see in this passage that fathers love their children even when they are misunderstood. What's interesting, if you look at verse 27, he said, and you murmured in your tents, well, why were they murmuring? And this is what they said, because the Lord hates us.

He had brought us forth out of the land of Egypt to literally put us in a worse situation, to deliver us to the Amorites and to destroy us. I can do just like my four-year-old does when he comes home and he don't like something. He'll come up, he won't even rest his arms, he'll come up and, do you know what Hudson did to me? He gets it from his pawpaws where he gets it. He'll just, isn't that what we do?

Here they are, listen, God gave them the best land, God gave them the best thing for them, a land that flows with milk and honey, they rebelled and didn't go, and then they're complaining about God saying he hates us, he wants to make us miserable, and he's the one that wanted to give them the best. Do you know that's what happens to dads sometimes? Sometimes fathers are misunderstood. Sometimes their children aren't gonna understand the burden of responsibility, the weight of it, and yes, we dads mess up and we blow it and we're human and we're flesh just like everybody else, but can I say sometimes dads can be very, very misunderstood.

So maybe sometimes we come home and we aren't in the best mood like we know the Bible says we're supposed to be. But you don't know who I had to work with today. And you don't know that lady that was going 10 miles an hour on the 55 on the way home.

You don't know, I'm between 40 and 50, I'm having midlife crisis here. Did I share too much personal information there? You know, oftentimes dads can be subjected to the strictest of criticisms and the smallest praise. They're misunderstood. And dear friend, may I say that oftentimes our Heavenly Father, when he doesn't do what we've asked him to do, and he doesn't do things the way we want it, when we want it, and he didn't just lay everything out like we thought would be best for our lives, oftentimes our Heavenly Father can be very misunderstood, but he still loves you, and he still loves me.

How wonderful. I want you to notice number five, that fathers love their children when they are discouraged. Look at verse 28, if you would.

I thought this was good. Where there shall we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying the people is greater and taller than we. The cities are walled up to heaven, and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anacoms there. Here God knew what was best, but they sent these men out, and they saw how big the giants were, and they saw how impossible it seemed to win a battle against them, and they literally came back and discouraged them. And here's the Lord that has literally freed them from bondage, brought all the plagues.

He had done all this. Surely they would have enough faith in him that he can win a battle against a few big guys, but they were discouraged. You know what, oftentimes dads, while we're misunderstood, and sometimes our young people don't know all the things, but we do want what's best. May I say that sometimes us dads can notice when our kids are discouraged.

Sometimes dads can come up and just say a little something like this. I know you're hurt and I know you're discouraged, but I want you to know something. I have no doubt you can do anything you put your mind to. I want you to know something. I see stuff in you that you've never even seen in yourself, and you can do it, and God's got a plan for your life. You can get beyond this. Do you know oftentimes you and I can see nothing but giants and walled cities, and yet God's got this plan for our life, and I want you to know oftentimes, I want you to understand, even when you're discouraged, God loves you, and he wants to encourage you.

We gotta get our eyes off these giants and these walled cities, and we need to remember what God's done for us all these years, and realize if he's done all that, he can take care of this too. I'm so thankful that I had a dad that tried to encourage me when I was discouraged. May I say, fathers, don't forget the Bible says, fathers provoke not your children to wrath. Fathers, when your children are discouraged and down, it's not the time to come put them down further. It's time to build them up. May I say this? Number six, fathers fight for their children. We're almost done. Look at verse 30, if you would.

The Lord your God, which goeth before you, he shall fight for you according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes. Now, you mark one thing down right now. I try to be extremely, I got a lot of faults. I try to be level-headed, and I try to realize, let me tell you something, there ain't nothing I'm sure my kids are not capable of doing, and I am one that if somebody at school says they did such and such, I usually tend to, yeah, you're probably right, and you know, I don't normally am not fooled by them coming like, well, I didn't do that, and I'm the dad that kind of like, oh, okay, they said, no, that's not me. When they say I didn't do that, I'm like, and I have good boys, and so I'm gonna tell you something, I'm not too fooled, and I'm not gonna be surprised, and they're gonna mess up, and they're gonna make mistakes, but I'm gonna tell you something that I will do. As long as I have breath in my body, I will fight for those boys, because they're my sons.

That's what fathers do, and I'm gonna tell you something. We're trying to raise and discipline, but bless God, I don't care what it takes. I'll fight for them, and I want you to understand something. You and I, as we sit in our tents, and we complain oftentimes about maybe what our Heavenly Father's doing, I want you to understand, He knows what's best, and He's not gonna let Satan have us, and He is gonna fight for us. I'm gonna tell you something, half the things in life we just couldn't do, we don't have the ability or the power if it wasn't the fact that God fights for us. You say, well, I can't take on these giants of my life, preacher, you don't have to. You have a God that'll do it for you. Fathers fight for their children.

More, I'd like to say to that, number seven, I want you to see this. Fathers carry their children when it's needed. Verse 31, and in the wilderness where thou hast seen. In other words, God has proven to you how that the Lord thy God bear thee as a man doth bear his son. That word bear literally means to carry. It means to complete. It means literally to watch over. God is saying this, and He's saying, hey, don't forget how God, just like a father, watches his children and carries them when they need it, and when they're down, when they're hurt, He lifts them up just like a father does that for children.

Your Heavenly Father has done that for you. I thought this was interesting. On a brutally hot day, a man walked past a miniature golf course, and he saw a dad following three small children from hole to hole. He would hold one, help the other one hit, then put the other one down and help them hit the putter, and then he'd pick the other one up, and it was hot and he was sweaty. This man said, when I saw him on the golf course, he said, I shouted, who's winning? One of the younger ones, little boy, said, I am. His little brother jumped up and said, I'm the one that's winning. They had a little sister finally that said, no, I'm the one that's winning, and he said that the sweaty and worn out dad picked his face up, looked at the man, and he said, their mother is.

Winning. May I say that oftentimes dads are working hard, sweat dripping off their faces, to try to carry a family or a children when needed. Charlotte Alexander, I thought this was good, said this before I took my old family car to college. My father, unbeknownst to me, loaded the trunk with soft drink bottles filled with oil, coolant, and transmission fluid. I didn't understand, sure enough, on the way my car overheated. Scolding myself for not listening to my father's instructions, I looked at the engine and picked the hood up and I saw how well my father knew me. The oil cap was labeled Dr. Pepper, the transmission stick was labeled Coke, and the empty coolant container was labeled Diet Pepsi. She said, I finished the trip safely.

That's a pretty good system to use, isn't it? Babe, where's my babe? Would you be offended if I told that story? About two days before my wife and I got married, it might have been three or four days, I'm trying to think exact days, but my wife was busy finishing little wedding things and different things, I think I was finishing a meeting, coming in for the wedding, we had rehearsal and all these things, and my wife had a car and I had a car, and of course to get married, then we absorbed both those cars and payments and things. My wife was trying to finish her teaching and working and getting wedding ready and different things. And she came in the house busy and just stressed and all these things, and imagine if you're getting ready to marry me how stressed she must have been. She got in and her dad was sitting in the living room and he kind of hollered out, June, June, that's the way he says it, June.

And I guess in her haste, I probably wouldn't say exactly how it went, but she kind of went and she goes, what, I am busy, I don't have time, what do you want? He didn't really, he said, don't worry about it. It was a little bit later that she noticed that he had seen that her tires on her car were pretty worn.

He had taken it and bought all brand new tires. She obviously had not seen it or noticed it and he was just wanting to let her know. And when she realized it, she went back in crying.

I'm so sorry, thank you. Fathers carry their children when needed and there's a lot of times they don't ever really get thanked for it. May I tell you, you have no idea and I have no idea how many times our Heavenly Father has carried us. Last, this morning, a father's love is unconditional.

Verse 31 is interesting, he says, and in the wilderness where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bear thee as a man doth bear his son, notice this, in all the way that ye went until ye came into this place. In other words, I loved you so much, I kept loving you till you finally got to where you were supposed to be. Although you complained, although you rebelled, although you misunderstood, although you didn't notice all the things I've done, although you forgot all the times I've carried you, I still loved you all the way until you came to this place.

I never stopped. Dear friend, I want you to understand your Heavenly Father, he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. One day we'll be facing him face to face in heaven and he will be able to say I have loved you until you came to this place.

And I will love you for an eternity. I thought this was interesting, and Nancy Perkins is from St. John's, Michigan, she wrote this and I thought this was good. My dad died unexpectedly at age 78, leaving our family heartbroken. During his funeral, my sister felt her phone vibrate in her purse. She was a little surprised that somebody would be calling her, knowing that she was at her dad's funeral. Afterwards, she found that there was a message left, and so she picked up the phone and dialed her voicemail, to which the message came and said this, hi, this is your dad, I wanted to let you know I made it home. As she looked at her phone, she realized that obviously somebody had called the wrong number, thinking that it was their dad, but she felt that the message was clear. My dad, who always claimed to be saved, had completed his journey to heaven, and wanted us to know. Isn't it something that, as a dad, one of the biggest things you can ever give your family, is for them to know that you're saved.

More I have to say, but I'm gonna close with this. This week, probably it was Tuesday or Wednesday, I was coming home, and I had the church truck, I think it was the church truck, I don't remember which vehicle. But I was coming home, it was late one afternoon, and my son, Kayden, has a little battery-operated John Deere tractor, and he rides it down our backyard through this path that goes right onto my father-in-law's family's property, and he goes, he'll have a little route, he'll go see Katie and Matt, unless only Matt's home, then he quickly leaves, and then he goes, no, I'm just joking.

I'm just joking. No, he loves Uncle Matt, he loves Uncle Matt. He'll go see Katie and Matt, they're home, then he'll go over and see Nanny for a while, and he'll go see Pawpaw, and he'll just go back and forth, that process throughout the day. And I was pulling into our driveway, and as I was pulling up the driveway, I saw him in his little tractor, and he was heading, and he was almost at the little opening in our backyard, going up that path. So I just pulled up, I didn't beep at him, I thought, well, he's going to Nanny's or whatever. And so I pulled up in that driveway, and when I pulled up, he was just sitting there driving, like he'll do, and he'll always look around while he's driving different stuff. And as he was driving, he looked around like that, and my car was pulling in, and he looked around, all of a sudden, that tractor, and he reached down, put it in, back that thing up, reached down, put it back in drive, and he took that whole yard, got off his tractor, just, Daddy, and gave me a hug, got back on his tractor, and went back through that pathway.

You know, the days coming, they won't stop. You know what it meant to me? My four-year-old, and his grand plans that he had, Dad's home!

He backed that thing up just to come say, hey, to Daddy. Do you know what that meant to me? And I thought to myself, dear God, how many times have I failed to stop my tractor, just to turn around and tell God my Father that I love him? Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kirtland Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192, or via the web at kirtlandbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.