With the only way to reach the Heavenly Father, listen as Dr. Michael Youssef begins today's Leading the Way. Jesus and Jesus alone can get you adopted by the Father. There is no other way under heaven. There is no other name under heaven by which men are given to call upon God.
Only the name of Jesus. Jesus and Jesus alone can make it possible for anyone who comes to Him in repentance and faith to be able to call His Father our Father. But memories come to mind when you think about your dad.
Some may recall sweet, happy times, but there are plenty of others who may be overwhelmed with fear-filled anxiety, loaded with emotional memories.
Well, sometimes these same negative things come into play when you think about your Heavenly Father. Today on Leading the Way, doctor Michael Youssef continues his series called The Prayer That God Answers. You'll hear how the story of the prodigal son reveals the heart of the Heavenly Father.
So let's listen as Dr. Youssef begins. One of the most basic elements of the Christian faith, which distinguishes it from all the other religions, Is the biblical concept that Jesus taught about the fatherhood of God? There are a lot of people who go around and say God is the Father of everybody. In the sense that He's the creator of everybody, He is the Father of everybody.
But he is uniquely the father of all of those who are brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus Christ. They alone can truly call him a father and know what that privilege is all about. It is not just a word, Father, in heaven. Because to understand the fatherhood of God for the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, it will absolutely revolutionize your life.
Now the greatest challenge for understanding and comprehending the fatherhood of God. And what it is like to call God Father. Is the wrong image that so many of us have because of our earthly fathers? those who have grown up with harsh angry, hard, earthly fathers inevitably Transfer that image. upon the fatherhood of God, our heavenly father.
Those who have grown up With fathers who are weak-willed and not commanding respect from their children, will be at some point. Transferring that image and apply it to the Heavenly Father. That's a challenge. It's a challenge for all of us. And the challenge is this, how to separate these experiences from the true image of our Heavenly Father.
In all four gospels, There are about 70 times that the Lord Jesus Christ talk about his Father. In fact, he referred to God in heaven as his Father every time in the Gospels except one. And that one time when he hung on that cross carrying my sins and yours, and that moment he was separated from the eyes of the Father for the first time since the beginning of time, for that moment when he carried and bore your sin and mine, at that moment it's the only time he could not call him Father. He said, my God, my God, why have thou forsaken me? The Aramaic word that Jesus would have used the word Abba, not the Hebrew word.
He and that word Abba carries incredible connotation of intimacy. It carries with it an incredible connotation of deep personal feelings. And this, to most of the Jews who were listening to Jesus at that moment, to all of them without exception, maybe a few exceptions, it's a radical view of God. To them, it was a new revelation about God. This was a unique way of viewing God.
The Jews knew God as the father of the nation, not necessarily their father, but the father of the nation of Israel. As a matter of fact, in Isaiah chapter 63, verse 16, it declares that, For you are our father and the father of our nation. But over the centuries, because of their disobedience, continuous disobedience, To the Lord God, because of their continuous flirting with the pagan gods of Baal. Because of their continuous turning their back on God, they lost the sense of God's fatherhood to the nation. And they saw God as distant as a faded figure in history who has helped their ancestors some time ago.
In fact, the whole Gospel of Matthew, if you read it carefully, it is a contrast. Between Israel The Son, whom God called out of Egypt, who became rebellious, who turned their back on God. The Son who refused to obey God and His commission, and comparing him with Jesus, who is the true Son, the faithful Son, the obedient Son, the perfect Son, the sinless Son. And therefore the Apostle Paul in Romans and Galatians see the Lord Jesus Christ is the full fulfillment of all the promises that were given to Abraham, and that all of the sands and the stars come as a result of the brothers and the sisters that Jesus brings to his Father. And only those who are Jesus' brothers and sisters can truly call God.
Our father. Those who put their trust in Him, those who accept His death on the cross to be for them, those who will follow Him and obey Him at any cost, those and those alone can call God Father. They're able to say that because Of their Face. This is not a very popular message. That in the eyes of the world and that educators of our day is being exclusivist and a bigot.
But that's really their problem. and it's between them and God. Because I will tell you what the Word of God says, and it says this: that Jesus and Jesus alone can get you adopted by the Father. There is no other way under heaven, there is no other name under heaven by which men are given to call upon God. Only the name of Jesus.
Jesus is the only one, and He alone can sign your adoption papers. Jesus and Jesus alone can bring you to the Father. Jesus and Jesus alone can make it possible for anyone who comes to Him in repentance and faith to be able to call His Father our Father. I hope that you're not going to misunderstand anything that I'm going to say from now on. I don't mind you disagreeing.
But I don't want you to misunderstand me. I want you to at least. Disagree after you understand. I'm going to tell you only what the Bible says. I'm not a politician and I'm not a partisan, I'm not a lawyer, I'm a preacher of the Word of God.
Every one of you is under obligation before God to measure everything by the Word of God, not by who said what. You have to measure what God's Word said by what is happening, and you have to make your own mind. Up. The Bible tells us. That without the shed blood of Jesus Christ, there can be no forgiveness.
The Bible tells us. That without the shed blood of Christ, repentance is not acceptable in the sight of God. Without the shed blood of Christ, there can be no true restoration. Without the shed blood of Jesus Christ, we cannot call God our Father. or be received.
By him, or be forgiven by him. That's his way. He spelled it out. He does not need us to improve on it. People are running around talking about forgiveness.
Isn't it amazing? The whole country became Christian. All of a sudden, everybody talking about forgiveness without even understanding what the word means, without even understanding the concept of forgiveness. You think forgiveness is just wink at sin and keep moving. I want to tell you this: that remorse and even a decision to change is not the same as biblical forgiveness, as biblical repentance.
The Bible tells us that biblical repentance says that I cannot have salvation without Jesus. That I cannot have power to overcome sin without Jesus. That I cannot help myself, only Jesus can help me. and to change me. Through his power.
Not my decision making. I don't care how strong-willed the person may be. That is the core of the Christian faith.
Some will say, but listen, Brother Yusuf, you don't understand, it is not politically correct to mention the name of Jesus in the federal building. I'm going to give you a good theological word, hogwash. And this is the core of our problem as a nation. You see, the founding fathers came under the power of the Lord Jesus Christ who were not ashamed to mention him. And then out of his characteristics, out of his love, they opened this country for people like me to come into this nation and be blessed and share in the blessing that God has given this nation.
But I never came, nor do anybody has the right to come and rearrange the furniture. Yeah. The core of the problem is this: if we cannot name Jesus' name, we cannot expect, nor we can continue to receive Jesus' blessings. If we are ashamed of Jesus' name, Jesus said, My Father in heaven will be ashamed of you in the day of judgment. If we are embarrassed to name the name, the only name who can forgive us and restore us and accept our repentance.
Then there can be no true forgiveness. If we are anxious to avoid His magnificent name, then there is no true repentance and therefore no true restoration. Without Jesus Repentance is not worth a half a hallelujah. It's mere human effort. It will not last.
It has no power with God. Please hear me right. See, Jesus' name is power. The problem is That we're so sucked in by our secular culture and technology and science. that we have ceased to believe that Jesus' name is power.
And that power has been replaced even in our own lives who know Jesus. Those of us even believers. Every single day. Jesus' name is power. And no government anywhere in the world likes any rivals for power.
And that is why they don't like the name of Jesus.
Now, they don't mind, of course, some sort of a nebulous mention of God or a God somewhere. They may even get emotional about it, that nebulous name. but it has no power with God. No one can call God Father who does not have Jesus as his Savior brother. It is impossible because that is God's way, God's only way.
Our Father is very compassionate. Oh, He is loving. He is grace full. He is mercy full. There is not a single believer who does not understand what I'm talking about.
Every one of us have been the recipients of His grace and mercy and forgiveness. Every one of us have sinned. Every one of us have lost touch with our God. But He forgave us. He restored us.
But you know what? There's only one way to receive that. That's His way. And He wants people to come to Him His way, not their way. Whatever that may be.
In fact, Jesus paints a magnificent picture in Luke chapter 15. It is a magnificent picture. You know what Jesus is doing? He says, I am painting a picture of my daddy in heaven. I want you to know what he's like.
Let me tell you what my daddy is like. This father is loving, he is caring, he is compassionate, he is patient, he is long-suffering, he is slow to anger, he is quick to forgive. That's the kind of father, that's the kind of painting picture that he wants us to have. When his son decided to leave home, he let him go. He never tried to stop him.
While he waited, for him day in and day out. He never tried to force him back. While his heart was broken in two, Over his son's rebellion. He never hired some private detectives to go and rescue him from the pigs. And while he longed for his son to come back, he never, never, never changed his own standards for forgiveness in order to suit his son.
Not once. Only when the sun came, and to repentance. The Father's way. Was he able to experience the Father's love, the Father's forgiveness, and the Father's blessings? You have to come to God God's way.
Not the politically correct way. You have to come and say, Jesus. That's God's way. There's only one way. I did not make the rule.
God did. It's worth it. And if this prodigal son, you know, got even as far as a mile away from home, but never got home to the eyesight of his father, he would have been just as bad for him as he was in the far country. If he had come and said, Well, you know, I just feel bad about talking to my father. I better send somebody to talk to the father on my behalf, he would have been just as bad as he was in the far country.
He had to come to the father the father's way. That's why we can call him Our father. Because we have submitted to him, he did not submit to us. What kind of a God is it who submits to our desires and our whims and our ideas of Him? And our Heavenly Father only accepts us.
and receives us and forgives us and restores us. Through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on Calvary. No amount of tears. Old remorse. is going to bring about forgiveness from God.
Unless those tears over what your sin has cost God. And it cost him plenty for his son to hang on a cross and die. Feeling sorry for your wrongdoings is not true repentance. Feeling remorse over sin is not biblical repentance. Jesus said to his disciples, When you pray, say, our Father.
In fact, you know the story of the prodigal son. is really a pure example. that the only way to come to the Father is the Father's way. And only those who come to the Father, the Father's way, can be his children. It's a magnificent example because the older boy gives us the other side of that too.
The older boy Stayed home. Sang in the choir. Did all his chores. kept his room tidy. Did all the outwardly right things.
But he had just as big a wall between him and the father. You know why? Because he allowed self-righteousness and self-pity to build that wall up. There are so many people in the churches have a wall between them and the Heavenly Father, and you know why? Because they want to get to God their way.
They want to please God their way. The father Try to assure that older boy that everything he has belongs to him. The father tried to assure him that according to Jewish law, he's even entitled to twice as much as his younger brother. The father tried to assure him of his love for him, of his affection toward him, of his interest in him. But his pride Stop there.
Some of you, religious pride stopping you from knowing God the Father as your Father.
Some of your intellectual pride stopping you from knowing God as your daddy.
Some of you have pride and success, and that's stopping you from knowing God as your Father. I pray to God you will Give it up today. That pride prevented the older boy from enjoying all the benefits that were his. They were his! But pride got in the way.
because he did not believe what his father said. And he was trying to do it his way. He was trying to earn what his father said is already his. Can you imagine that? He forfeited that privilege.
In fact, the older boy really is the more pathetic of the two. Really, when you think about it. The older boy is a picture of a poor, pathetic person. Who goes to church, has a membership somewhere, a person who wants to believe in God his or her way. A person who tries so hard the wrong way.
A person who takes God for granted. A person who wants God's grace and God's forgiveness some other way, other than the shed blood of Jesus Christ on Calvary. And yet Let me tell you about the father. and the picture that Jesus paints about the Father. The father was just as brokenhearted over the older boy as much as he was over the younger boy in the far country.
Please hear me right. None of that changes the love of the Father. None of that changes the yearning of the Father. For the Son to come back. None of that changes the waiting of the Father.
There's nothing you can do for God to love you more. There's nothing you can do for God to love you less. He loves you, and nothing is going to stop him from loving you. But the waiting father We'll be waiting in vain. If we tried to modify his way, If we try to Twist his way.
If we try to improve on his way, why? Because His way is not open for modification. or improvement. Our Father. Little phrase.
You know what it does as you begin the disciples' prayer. It sort of reduces all the complications of life. into that simple relationship. Do you have that simple relationship? Have you experienced it?
Do you know him, or is there something that's blocking him and your relationship with him? Yeah. Being enjoyed so thoroughly. Jesus said to his followers: When you pray, say, Our Father. As I Reflected upon those magnificent two words again and again.
Four things I've learnt. Number one. Having God for my Father, means an end to all fear. Yeah. Pagans and many other religions, they are terrified of their deities.
They are terrified of their gods. But I'm not afraid of my God because he's my daddy. But not only that my Heavenly Father takes away my fears. Secondly, He gives me all hope. and confidence that I need to banish uncertainty in my life.
You see, because of that relationship, because I know that in my daddy I have protection, in my daddy I have safety, in my daddy I have security, in my daddy I have serenity, in my daddy I have peace, in my daddy I have salvation, yes, in my daddy I have joy unspeakable, even in the midst of the tough times. Not only that, when God is my Father, I have no fear. Not only when God is my Father, I have hope and protection. But thirdly, when God is my Father, I have companionship. I have companionship.
You know, your family may reject you, your friends may forsake you, but. Your heavenly daddy never, never, never, never, never, never. How many nevers are these?
Well, let's say some more. Never, never, never, never. Forsake you. Listen to what Jesus said in John chapter 14 verse 21. Here's what Jesus said.
He who has my commandments and keeps them. Here's a key point. He is that loves me. And he who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will disclose myself to him. Or her.
Let me ask you this. Has God revealed himself to you recently?
Somehow Maybe you have not been keeping his commandments. Maybe your love has grown. Cold. Not only that when God is my Father, I have no fear. Not only when God is my Father, I have hope and protection.
Not only when God is my Father, I have companionship. But finally, when God is my Father, I have his provision. All of the resources of heaven are available to God's children. Did you know that? All of the resources in heaven, but I'm going to tell you the problem.
The problem is a lack of faith blocks these blessings from coming in.
Somebody says to me, Oh, isn't that terrible what's happening in the stock market? I said, Let me ask you this: what did you do for God when the stock market was up? We gripe and complain. One little bit of a Twist in the financial market. But how do we do, what do we do with the blessings that he gives us?
And as long as we hoard him, We block. the opportunity for God to pour out His resources. When you pray, say, our father. Father, Our Father means God is eager to hear me. Our Father means that God is eager to empower you and hear you, and God is eager to bless you.
and lead you. Thank you for letting Dr. Michael Youssef be part of your day. Death is leading the way. Would you like to get to know your Heavenly Father?
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