Thank you for listening to the river.
Bend Church podcast Reverb in church exists.
Delete all people to know love and live New Life in Jesus
Christ. We hope that you enjoy this
message. Happy Father's Day to you all
and Father's, Day to all the dads.
Get out there. So glad to be able to celebrate
with you this morning, if we haven't had the chance to meet
my name is Ben. I get to serve as one of the
pastor's here at Riverbend Church.
Whether you're live with us here in Gainesville and Oakwood on
our Oakwood campus was already able to spend some time with
with the, with the volunteers down at Oakwood.
No better group of volunteers than we have down at our Oakwood
campus, incredible men and women just pouring their lives out,
just showing the love of Jesus being the hands and feet of
Jesus. Jesus.
If you're joining us online, welcome, we love being able to
gather together, spend time with one another and today we get to
celebrate Father's dad's father figures.
And I think that there are three essential things to Father's Day
and no particular order dad jokes Meat and naps.
All right, so we're gonna knock out two of the three.
Hopefully, not the third. Hopefully, not the nap will say
that to this afternoon. So to help kick us off a little
light-hearted. I've asked two of our dads to
come up and they're going to give us, they're going to
alternate back and forth. They're going to give us their
best dad joke and then we're going to choose who the winner
of the best dad jokes. So what are two volunteers?
This earn income. Which give them a warm welcome.
so, if y'all don't know, That's gonna be tough to beat if y'all
don't know, is Jeff, White is Rob Andrews.
Their kids are thrilled that they're up here.
So here's what we're going to start with.
Listen we've got to pay bills so keep that in mind with your dad
jokes. Okay.
All right. Don't make me lose my job.
That's what I'm getting at. So here's what we're going to do
is Jeff, you're going to go one and then Rob, you're going to go
then. Jeff.
You got another one, rob? You got another one in there.
Will declare a winner? Good.
All right, start us off, Jeff. Okay, I'll have to It's one of
those things that when somebody asks you to do something you say
yeah I'll do that. And immediately like right now
I'm thinking well I wish he'd ask somebody else.
Okay, anybody have pets, raise your hand, a recent study, came
out that 30% of pet owners. Let their pets sleep with them.
I tried it and my goldfish died. It's a solid start.
Well Jeff, I was at the gym the other day.
That's the joke. That's a joke.
And there was, there was a chicken there.
He was working on his pets. That's good.
All right. The other night at least and I
were out to dinner and the waitress was flirting with me.
She turns and walks away. Eliza said, bless her heart.
She's obviously had covid. I said, how do you know that she
said because she has no taste What do you get when you put a
mad cow and angry goat in the same room?
A bad move. Alright we've been here so I
need your help with we need to clear winner.
So by round of applause, if you think the winner is Jeff the
chains together, If you think the winner is Rob, put your
hands together. That's a tough one.
No sir. That's at uh, Well, you both you
both you both get beef jerky. so, And then you get the, you
get the dad Cub that I think it says, where do I keep, I don't
know what it says. This is Dad joke on there.
All right, we love just being able to celebrate Dad's and just
being able to honor Dad's because I don't think it's a
secret at all that especially in our day and age in our
culture's, you know, Dad's and father figures are kind of,
they're very much relegated, their their ridiculed, their
downplayed. But here's what we know, we know
that who we are in large part is due to the contributions of the
men, the fathers and the father figures of our lives and your
influence can never be. Dated and what I want to do this
morning in the time that we have is I want to go into a book or
go into a passage in The Book of Mark.
Mark chapter 1 if you have a Bible with you whether it's a
physical copy or digital copy Mark chapter 1 and we're going
to be picking it up in verse 16 but let me get it.
Give you kind of a little bit of a historical context because
what we're going to be looking at this morning is is a father
that he's mentioned. This guy, he's mentioned in all
four Gospels. Counts, Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John, his name appears in all four but there's not a whole lot
of print given to them. There's not a whole lot of ink
given to this God, that God by the name of Zebedee, is a dad
that we know as Zebedee. Now, we also know this is Dad's
and men and father figures we come in all different types of
personalities, right? So you may be the type of
Personality that you're kind of an out front, like life of the
party type of guy. You may be more the behind the
scenes. Type of type of quiet leader,
but your influence is immense. Enormous, nonetheless, no matter
what your personality type is, and no matter what your
personality wiring is, I happen to believe that Zebedee is
probably one one of these behind-the-scenes types of goz
even though his overall context. And and what we do know about
him is is going to be really big for us to kind of unpack when we
start looking at the challenge that God has for us as dads, and
fathers and father figures. But when we get to Mark chapter
1, Jesus is about 30 years old, at this point in time, he's on
the very, very front edge of his ministry before.
Jesus starts his Earthly Ministry.
His cousin, a God, that we know is John the Baptist is baptizing
people by the Jordan River. In the Jordan River, he's
teaching about baptism and repentance.
And he's preparing the the hearts and the minds of the
people that are coming out of Jerusalem and the surrounding
area to come hear him speak he's preparing them for the coming
Messiah. Jesus.
Jesus comes onto the scene comes to the banks of the Jordan River
and comes down into the water and tells John that he needs
John to baptize him John baptizes.
Jesus goes under the water comes back up.
We read in the early chapters of the Book of Matthew to where the
Holy Spirit, descended on Jesus like a dove and a voice.
Of the father to send it from Heaven.
Say, this is my son in whom I'm well, pleased from that point on
the holy spirit of God leaves, G leads, Jesus out into the
Wilderness out into the desert, for about 40 days of prayer and
fasting and just spending time with the father.
And in those 40 days, we have the three Temptations of Jesus
listed for us. After those 40 days.
Jesus comes out of the Wilderness and he starts to
select his first followers. He starts to Select his first
four Apostles and this is where we pick it up in verse 16 of
Mark chapter 1, of where Jesus is on the scene.
Calling his first four Apostles, read with me, verse 16 says, one
day, as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
He saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the
water for they fish for a living, Jesus called out to
them. Come follow me and I will show
you how to fish for people. Some of your translations may
say come follow me and I'll teach you how to be a fisher of
men. And they left their Nets at
once. And I followed him verse 19, a
little further up or farther up. The shore, Jesus saw zebedee's
Sons James and John in a boat repairing their Nets, he called
them at once and they also followed him leaving their
follow father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men.
Now, this means that Jesus. When we start to look at Jesus
calling his disciples, I think that we probably need a little A
little bit of first century, Jewish context to understand
what these guys were doing. They weren't just fishermen.
We need to see that they were kind of seen as a certain class
of people if you will. So first century, Jewish
context, is this is if you were a male boy at the age of 6, you
would go to your local synagogue and you would go to your local
synagogue, probably every day and you would memorize the
entire Torah as a six-year-old 6 through 10 years old memorize
the entire tour. Now for us.
Us. We know the tour is the first
five books of the Bible. The first five books of the Old
Testament, Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers and
Deuteronomy. So at the age of six, all Jewish
boys would memorize word for word.
All five of those books from 6 to 10.
And you thought multiplication tables were tough.
But the rabbi's would look at the vast majority of that group
of boys, and thank them for their time, probably give them a
participation certificate or scroll, they would have a
graduation ceremony to wear their parents.
Their moms are posting on Facebook and Instagram.
You know this happy graduation from Little synagogue school but
they would look at the vast majority of these little boys
and they would go go. Follow your father's trade, go,
learn your father's trade. In other words, go follow in
your Father's Footsteps. If your dad was a farmer, You
would learn how to be a farmer. If your dad was a fisherman, you
would learn how to be a fisherman, but they would say
they would hold back and they retained the best of the best of
the best and of the best of the best of the best.
Those boys starting at the age of 10 would go on to memorize
the entire what. We now know as the Old Testament
word for word Genesis through Malachi they would memorize this
word forward into the vast majority of those kids.
Would give them a graduation certificate or scroll.
Get do a ceremony whole nine yards and they would say go
learn a trade and other words, we believe that you have what it
takes to go, Blaze your own path in a career.
If you want to follow your dad's footsteps and being a carpenter
or a farmer or fisherman, go have at it.
But we believe that you have what it takes to go Blaze your
own path, but to The Very Best of the Best of the Best of the
Best, they would retain those boys after memorizing the entire
Old Testament. Aunt.
And they would assign that boy to sit under a specific Rabbi or
teacher and that teacher would then teach that little boy or
that young man, his take on certain passages and Prophecies
of the Old Testament that take and those teachings of the rabbi
would be known as that rabbis yoke.
Which gives a completely deeper understanding to what Jesus
says, in the popular passage in Matthew 11.
Remember, when Jesus said, come to me all you who are weary and
carry heavy burdens and I will give you rest.
Take my, what take my yoke upon you take my teachings upon you
and let me teach you because I'm humble and gentle at heart and
you will find rest for your souls.
For my what my yoke, my teaching is easy to bear and the burden.
I give you is light. What is the Look of Jesus, the
Yoke of Jesus is basically twofold.
Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and
strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Love God, love people. That's my yolk.
That's the yolk of Jesus, that's the teaching.
That's the Core Essence. The core teachings of Jesus,
USA, you may say, okay that's great.
Good to know from six to ten. Memorize the first five books,
man, that's crazy. After 10 years old, vast
majority, they were dismissed but then some of them went to
memorize Genesis through Malachi.
Cool. And then after that, select few
would send her to write. Send us it under rabbi's,
teaching, what in the world does this have to do with me in 2023?
Well, the context of this since Jesus was walking by the Sea of
Galilee is these four men, Peter and Andrew James and John were
considered the not good enough of the religious.
They were considered the not good enough.
By the people that were picking teams.
I don't know your story, I don't know your background.
Don't know your context or you're setting a what you came
in here with this morning, or, or what you have in Oakwood, or
watching online where you may be physically or mentally or
emotionally or spiritually, But if some of us feel a little
discouraged, may be discouraged. Maybe maybe we're still broken
over some past mistakes. Maybe you feel like a not good
enough. Can I give you a word of
encouragement Gainesville Oakwood online?
It's not good enough, that Jesus specializes in, it was not good
enough that Jesus called to follow him and to flip the world
up on its head and giving the hope of the Gospel to everyone
that they came across. And by the way, his pattern has
it changed. He still calls the not good
enough, but here's the difference between Peter and
Andrew and James and John, Peter and Andrew, they were fishermen
James and John, they were also fishermen, but their daddy on
the fishing business, So, Peter and Andrew even though they were
fishermen, they went to learn their father's trade.
James and John had a safety net. And following Jesus.
So when Jesus comes and says hey James and John, the sons of
Zebedee you come follow me for them to step away and follow
Jesus. They weren't stepping away from
nothing, they were stepping away from a tangible future.
A seemingly secure future in order to embrace an unknown, a
life of unknown faith. And following Jesus, you know,
who had the primary role in all of this.
Zebedee. Zebedee had the primary role in
James and John following Jesus. Here's why.
Because as the dad Zebedee, served as a gate of sorts now,
we all know this. If you have a if you have a
fence in your yard, you have a gate, a gate is going to serve
as two primary functions, right? It's either going to serve is
going to stay close to keep things either out or to keep
things in or a gate serves to swing open to allow Things out
or to allow things in. That's those true.
For the dad's, the fathers and the father figures in here is
every single one of us in our spheres, in our Circles of
influence, whether your dad, whether you're a mom Whether you
are a veteran and following Jesus, you follow Jesus, if for
decades or whether you're brand new to following Jesus, mine in
your life, we serve as gates to the circles and spheres of
influence that God has already placed us around.
Zebedee could have kept the gate closed and basically looked at
his sons and go James and John. Listen, I know that you want to
follow Jesus. I know that you want to go after
this guy. I know that you want to chase
after this, but God has listened Sons.
This is what we've been planning for.
This is the family business, he could have kept the gate closed.
But what does ebony do? He opened the gate.
He opened the gate and he actually encouraged his boys to
go. Follow Jesus.
And you may say Ben, I don't read in, Mark chapter 1,
starting in verse 18 to where Zebedee encourages his boys to
follow Jesus. Where do you get that?
He encouraged his boys to follow Jesus.
It comes with the overwhelming way in which God has chosen to
work in the power of the influence of dads and father
figures in our lives. I don't think that anything has
changed over. In years.
So here's what I would tell you is as we look as men as women as
students as anybody who God has placed in a position of
influence, how do we live a life that actually encourages those
around us to follow Jesus? And there's two primary ways
that we're going to be looking at this morning, just two
primary ways through the life and through the lens of Zebedee.
Here's the first one is living a life of consistent.
Fullness living a life of consistent faithfulness.
Now, like I said, zebedee's name appears in Matthew Mark, Luke.
And John, however, there's not a lot of ink given to him, We just
have his name, but here's what we do have.
We do know that his family. We're very, it was very, very
close to God. We know that his family was
very, very close to Jesus. As a matter of fact, zebedee's
wife was a woman by the name of salami salami minister to Jesus
met his physical needs while he ministered in the area of in the
region of Galilee. Salami was also one of the women
that was at the foot of the cross.
When Jesus was being crucified and salami was also one of the
women that went to the tomb, the morning of Easter of Easter
Sunday to anoint. Jesus body was spices.
Salomi zebedee's wife was one of the first ones to discover that
Jesus wasn't in the too many more.
James and John, his brother at his zebedee's sons.
John was already a disciple of John, the Baptist we read in
some of the other gospel accounts to where John followed,
John the Baptist and then when John the Baptist introduced
everybody to Jesus, John looked at John the Baptist and goes.
Okay, you've been preparing me for this guy.
I'm going to follow this guy. We know that there's this,
there's this track record there James, and John, along with
Peter, they composed the, the Inner Circle, the core three of
Jesus, closest disciples, this core three.
They were privy to beings Jeet Singh.
Jesus, actually in his glorified, Heavenly State on the
Mount of transfiguration, they were the only three of the
Apostles that got to see Jesus in that.
State. These three were the ones that
Jesus Took deeper into the Garden of Gethsemane, the night
that he was betrayed by Judas to pray for him.
These three were the three that were present when G, when Judas
came up to betray Jesus with a kiss, It was these three that
compose the inner core of Jesus friendship group.
You may say, okay? So salami, she loved Jesus,
James and John, obviously is love Jesus.
Then how do we get that Zebedee obviously?
Love Jesus. Well, we get this through.
There's overwhelming evidence to testicle evidence that he would
have absolutely loved Jesus. Here's what I mean.
And like I said, I don't think that anything has changed over
2,000 years and the way in which influence works in the way that
God wants to work in the family unit, I want to show you Stats.
We kids come to Jesus Christ, first. 3.5 percent of families
will follow. What I mean by that is we love
being able to pour into our kids.
We love being able to teach our kids, the gospel from the time
that they are born to the time that they leave Elementary
School, make the transition into middle school and high school.
We love being able to teach them.
That there is a God that created them.
There's a God that loves them. Jesus has plans for them and the
Holy Spirit can Empower them. We love doing it.
We will never give up doing that.
We love next-gen. We will always give next-gen our
best and our Our first and our finest we love going after next
gen. However, if a kid is the first
in a family to become a follower of Jesus, only three, three
point, five percent of families, moms and dads in the rest of the
family will follow. If a mom comes to Jesus first
and she's the only person in the family that becomes a follower
of Jesus first and guess what? Seventeen percent of families.
Follow the check this out when a dad comes to Jesus first.
Just check this out. Ninety-three percent of
families. Follow May say give or take
what? He doesn't matter.
Ninety-three percent of families follow when Dad follows Jesus,
here's what we know. Typically, as the dad goes so
goes the family. As the dad goes.
So goes the family. So how can we make these
inferences about Zebedee? We look at the fruit of the
family as the dad goes. So goes the family.
So I guarantee you that Zebedee was a God-fearing Jesus loving
man that even though he led from the background.
And there's not a lot of print given to him, his life of
faithfulness of consistent faithfulness, was on display in
the way in, which his wife follow Jesus.
In the way that his sons And followed Jesus.
He lived a life of consistent faithfulness.
Now, here's the encouraging word Zebedee.
Wasn't a pastor Zebedee. Wasn't a missionary Zebedee.
Wasn't some had some massive following social media
following. As a Christian influencer, he
was a businessman. He was a fisherman, he was a
businessman. How in the world could this
fishermen have such an impact for the kingdom of God?
Here's why? Because Jesus always did more
through the laws of ordinary fisherman than he ever did
through hypocritical, religious leaders, Me say that again Jesus
always did. Jesus always does more through
the live to the lives of ordinary fishermen.
Then he does through hypocritical religious leaders,
he lived a life of consistency. I think that we faithful
consistency. I think that sometimes we get so
twisted and even I would even say that it comes out of some
enthusiasm and exuberance to do great things for God, we get
things so twisted. That we think that we have to do
these big audacious things for God.
And we lose sight of the fact that what he has called us to do
is to live a life of faithful obedience even in the seemingly
mundane Tom's. Let me say that a different way.
God cares, just as much about your Mondays and Thursdays as he
does your Sundays And where's this lived out?
First, it's lived out first in the home.
So dad's father's father figures, men, how do we do this?
How do we live out a life of consistent faithfulness to our
families? This is not an exhaustive list,
but I think it's going to start here.
I think it starts with praying over your kids, praying over
your wife, praying over your family, praying with your
family. I think it also starts with
having, just very honest conversations with your family,
with your kids and say, Hey, listen. mom and I, or maybe your
single dad, Or maybe you're single bomb and you're just
being very honest, and very vulnerable with your kids and
go. And listen, I'm really having to
pray through this decision. I don't know which way to go,
but I'm praying through it because I need God to God, me,
as a mom, as a dad, as a father, as a father figure, you don't
have to have all the answers. Sometimes, the most powerful
thing that you and I can do in leading our homes and leading
our families and lives. The honor Jesus is to show them
our Are vulnerable dependence on Jesus, our need for Jesus.
Because listen, if we don't portray that to our kids, our
kids are going to grow up thinking.
Hey listen if I'm just like Dad and Dad, never showed me that he
needed Jesus. Then I'm going to try to be like
Dad and I don't need Jesus and we know that that's not the case
at all. I love the I love the old quote.
He goes something like this. It says your greatest
contribution to the kingdom of God.
May not be something that you do but someone that you raise And
except under rare circumstances as the dad goes.
So goes the family but it starts with living a life of faithful
consistency. And consistent faithfulness.
But it also goes with this living with an eternal
perspective, living with an eternal perspective again, put
yourself in the shoes of Zebedee.
What would the safer bet be? What were the safer bet be?
For James and John to stay with him as fishermen.
That would be the safer bet. But Zebedee, knew this in the
perspective of Eternity, the wisest thing for James and John
to do would be to follow Jesus. But make no mistake about it.
This really cost this decision cost Zebedee.
And this is what I mean, James, and John has two boys, they were
probably his two best fisherman. He taught his boys, the trick of
the trade. They knew all the family secret
like fishing spots. James and John helped Zebedee,
help their dad, build this business up, James and John were
the retirement plan for Zebedee? James, and John actually
standing in in line to inherit a fishing company.
A fishing business, stood to make a lot of money, and a lot
of money was going to translate into a lot of influence.
They stood to be major players in the fishing business in the
Galilee region of that time. So when Jesus comes on the scene
and he says, James and John follow me, he was asking them to
give up something. That was seemingly certain to
embrace something that had no guarantees.
And he may think, okay, I'm glad it worked out for them, but then
I'm really scared of that Exchange.
I don't know if I do that. We'll check this out as a part
of that exchange James and John could have stayed as business
partners of their dad. Eventually taking over the
family business, or they could be eyewitnesses to the son of
God. His life his teachings, his
miracles, his death, his resurrection.
You see James and John after making the decision to follow
Jesus. James is going to go on to be
the first Apostle martyred. In other words, he's the first
disciple to be killed for saying, I'm a follower of Jesus
Christ. He was killed because he was so
outspoken for Jesus. Christ saying listen, we follow
this guy for three, three and a half years.
We saw him die. We saw him resurrect from the
dead. He is the Messiah.
He is the way the truth, the life.
Repent experience eternal life through Jesus and the political
leaders of that day in Jerusalem around 44 ad had enough and they
killed James. He was the very first of the
disciples killed. his brother, John goes on to write the Books
of first and second and third, John, The Book of Revelation and
the Book of John John was the only one of the 12 apostles.
That was not martyred for his faith, but he didn't get off
easy. He actually was hunted down and
he was boiled alive, and oil, and they thought he died.
But he woke up and then he was thrown into a prison.
And then he spent his last days busting rocks in a prison camp
on the island of Patmos. Dying desolate and hungry.
But it was this exchange there. But again, can you imagine how
history may have been different? If Zebedee had forbade James and
John to go Place doubt in their hearts about going, or even
hesitated about James and John following Jesus?
You see this gets back to the heart of living with an eternal
perspective. Do you know what the number one?
Qualifier? The number one evidence of a
life that lives with eternal perspective is is generosity.
It's generosity. Now, follow with me.
Generosity is when I take and when I start to look at
everything that I have my Tom, my talents and my treasures.
And I start to realize these are not things for me to own.
These are things for me to Steward.
And what I mean by stewarding is these are things for me to
manage not for me to own These are things for me to invest.
These are things that have been entrusted to me by God.
So my primary responsibility is to invest these things to the
kingdom and the purpose of God. Let's hold that.
Thought, let me ask you a question.
If somebody came to you and said, listen, I have no idea
about God. I have no idea about Jesus, but
somebody gave me a Bible. I know that you're a Christian.
What is the first place that I should look to find out what
Christianity is about? What is the first place in the
Bible that I should look at to find out who Jesus is and and
this God that you say worship, I think that we would probably all
refer that person probably the most popular.
In the entire Bible, right? John 3:16, let me show you since
for God, so loved the world that he gave his only son, that
whoever believes in him. Should not perish, but have
eternal life. That is the spot on, right
answer. This is what we should be
pointing people to write if we want to know the heart of God.
If we want to know, the purpose of Jesus and the offering of the
Holy Spirit, it is John 3:16. But do you pick up the link
between generosity and eternal perspective?
Even in John 3:16 for God. So loved the world that he what
that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish. But half what eternal life.
How do I invest my Tom, my talents and my treasures into
the kingdom of God, that is living a life of generosity.
There's a there's a missionary a famous missionary, by the name
of Jim Elliot, he was a missionary to the people in
Ecuador. I love this quote from from Jim
Elliot. He is no fool.
Who gives what he cannot keep to gain, what he cannot lose.
What a powerful quote. Zebedee is the picture of this
70 worked really, really hard to build this fishing business
Zebedee. Had plans for James and John to
take over the fishing business, James and John probably had
plans for them to take over the fishing business.
But here's the thing is Zebedee, and James and John's plans, were
not congruent with the plans that Jesus had for James and
John and Zebedee. Jesus actually had a greater
plan. He had a plan in, which he
showed James, and John and Zebedee.
How to live with an eternal perspective and living with an
eternal perspective is going to be living a life of generosity.
so here's what I want to do this morning, I want to focus in on
two questions and we're going to end a little bit differently
this morning, but I just want to bring us into an overall time of
prayer this morning, and I just want to walk through a couple
questions with you this morning. It's number one.
How are you? How am I?
How are we living a life of generosity?
And number two, Is how are we, how are you?
How am I encouraging those around us to live a life of
generosity? Now, you may be in here.
Oakwood you. Maybe you maybe down in Oakwood
or online to where you're saying.
Been this sounds great. I wish I had a dad like Zebedee,
but that wasn't my experience. What am I supposed to do?
With all mercy and Grace and compassion.
But in full belief of the power of the holy spirit in and
through you, here's my word of encouragement to you.
If you didn't have a father a dad or father figure like
Zebedee, here's my challenge to you.
Let the chain now start with you.
Let The Chain now start with you.
You do realize that zebedee's opening the gate for his son,
James, and John. Now links him with hundreds of
millions of people's lives, that have given themselves over to
following Jesus Christ. When a new chain, let a new
pattern, let a new family link start with you.
Whether you're a dad, whether your father or father figure,
you have people in your circle and sphere of influence that
lead them the challenges to lead them to live a life of
generosity to lead them in a life that encourages them to
follow, Jesus Christ to live without Eternal perspective and
you're going to live without Eternal perspective with
constant and consistent faithful, obedience to his word
and to his prayer. Are you maybe in here?
And you may say Ben, listen, I'm a single mom in here or I'm
spiritually single. I'm married, but my, but my
husband or my, my wife is not a follower of Jesus, what am I to
do? And that's a great question to
in our challenges, our churches to come around to love you and
to support you. But here's what I would tell you
is the Holy Spirit and full confidence, the Holy Spirit Will
equip you to do and to be anything.
And Anything that he calls you to be in anything and everything
that he called you to do in the lives that he's already placed
around you. You may be in the camp where you
say, been, I'm new to following Jesus.
I'm new to following Jesus. Like, how can I lead somebody
else to follow Jesus? If I'm brand new to following
Jesus, all you have to do to lead is to Simply Be One.
Step Ahead continue spinning. Tom in his word, continue
spending time in prayer and being committed to being
obedient to what, you know, God is speaking in and through you
and prayer. And you know, what God is
revealing to you in his word and just live out.
Out. Faithful obedience.
So every single one of us, whether you're a man or a woman,
a mom or a dad, a father figure, a mother figure, a student, a
child in here. We are all called to live with
this consistent faithful, obedience.
And we're called to live with an eternal perspective, but the
Eternal perspective, the number one fruit of Eternal perspective
is generosity. So this is not going to be a
time. I'm not going to ask you two to
come down. As a matter of fact, I just
simply want to invite you wherever you are.
Gainesville Oakwood online. If you would simply join me in a
time of prayer wherever you are just bow, your heads and close
your eyes. We don't believe that we bow our
heads and close our eyes because it's some holy posture.
We bow our heads and we close our eyes to tune out all the
distractions around us. I just want to spend some time.
And allow the Holy Spirit to speak in and through and over
us. And I want to walk you through
these questions. And these questions are not at
all. Meant to be some point of guilt
there. They're meant to be a point of
reflection to where I asked. God, this for me and I'll allow
God to transform me from the inside out.
So again. Ask God, how God, how am I
living a life of generosity? God.
How can I use my Tom? Use my talents.
Use my treasures, my resources. To make a difference for your
kingdom. And then the second question, Is
God, can you show me names and faces of people that you were
calling me? To encourage them to live a life
of following Jesus. God, who have you placed in my
life? That you've placed them in my
life, for the purpose of, showing them, you and
encouraging them through your word through prayer.
God, we come before you completely humbled by the facts
that you are here with us. God, you love us.
God, that there is nothing in our lives.
That is by chance, coincidence or happenstance.
Got the people that you have placed in our lives.
God, you have strategically placed them there for such a
time as this God, I pray that you would call our hearts and
call our moms and call our lives back to being once.
That is most satisfied in you. In that consistent faithful,
obedience to you. God, we pray that you would help
us to live with an eternal perspective.
Got our prayer is that you would use us in similar ways like you
use Zebedee. God, we want to be gate holders.
God, we want to hold the gate open for those that are around
us for those that are coming after us, to applaud them, to
cheer them to encourage them to follow after.
You got open our eyes to the level and the significance of
influence that we already have. And may we Steward that may we
manage that for your kingdom with an eternal perspective and
is in Jesus name. We pray.
Amen. As we stay in an attitude of
prayer. Also want to ask that that we do
this. If you are a dad, if you're a
father in here or you serve as a father figure, I know many men
in our church. I know many men in my life that
they don't have biological kids but they have a lot of spiritual
kids. God is strategically placed
people men and other men. Other women other students, boys
and girls in their lives. For them to be a spiritual
father. So if you're a father, Our
Father Figure in here, this morning, can I just ask that we
do something? We're going to keep the lights
down low, can I just ask that you stand and as you stand?
Can I ask if there's if there's somebody And that is standing
near you. Can I ask that you just place
your hand on them or place your hand out towards them.
We want to pray over you men. We want to pray over you men
because this is one of the prayers that we're praying as a
church. We're praying that God would
unleash his holy spirit, not just in, and through Riverbend,
not just in and through Hall County, but this entire region
and I'm firmly convinced thoroughly convinced, it's going
to start with us, it's going to start with a menace.
Going to start with a dad's is going to start with the father's
in the father figures. But church we need one another's
prayer in this endeavor. So as you reach your hand out,
you may be touching them, you may be reaching your hand out
over them. Would you solidly?
Pray for them? You may know them by name.
You may not know them by name, God knows him by name.
But would you pray over them? Got for these men.
Got, we love them that I love for them, got our heart for
them, our desires for them pale in comparison to your love, your
desires, your heart for them. God, I pray that you would
protect them, I pray that you would protect their hearts that
you would protect their minds. God, I pray that you would
protect them from pride and from insecurity, God, I pray that you
would Infuse them with your holy spirit Power God that you would
leave them as you call them to lead those that you've placed
around them God that you would continually work in and through
them and got your work in and through them would be an
overflow to all that are around them.
Can we thank you for these families?
God, we thank you for your encouragement.
God, we also want to pray. Over some of the ladies in the
house this morning as well. Some of the ladies in Oakwood
this morning that there's not a dad, there's not a there's not a
there's not a male, there's not a father figure present but God
they're pulling spiritual double duty.
God we pray that you would come alongside them and that you
would strengthen them. God, that you would comfort
them, God that you would embolden them got, Infuse them
with your grace, your power, your mercy, your hope, God, we
pray that you would continue to do in and through us.
When only, you could get credit for doing and it's in Jesus
name, we pray, amen. Thank you for listening to the
Riverbend Church podcast. Learn more about who we are as a
church and how to connect you can head over to our website
Riverbend church. That life