Stronghold Beliefs Part 3
Scriptures: John 3:16; Jeremiah 29:11; John 14:16-18
This is part three of my series “Stronghold Beliefs.” The first stronghold belief that I shared with you that all Christians must have is the belief that we need to be focusing on our Father’s business. That belief underscored everything that Jesus did and likewise it should be our focus as well.
As we are celebrating Father’s Day today, I thought it appropriate that we examine the second stronghold belief that we must have and that is to simply believe that our Heavenly Father loves us and within Him there is no darkness at all. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” The reason God sent Jesus to die for our sins is so that we could have a relationship with Him. Think about it, He sacrificed His Own Son so that He could have a relationship with those whom He so loved! So this morning I want to provide you the proof that you need in order to believe that God, your Heavenly Father, truly does love you and only desires the best for you.
To make this clear, I want to tell you about something God told me last week. As I was preparing to go to bed, the song “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” by the Temptations came into my head. Immediately as the words played through my mind God said to me, “I am not a rolling stone – that is not Who I am!” Immediately I was stopped in my tracks. I could not fall asleep as I thought about the words of that song and why God wanted me to know that He was not a rolling stone. Please understand that this song is not one of my favorites by the Temptations because in reality it talks about a worthless father – a worthless man. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever associate that song with God, or my earthly father. I have shared with you many times stories about my father and how much he loved all of his children and did his best for us. Many of us have stories about how wonderful God has been to us – but this is not the case for everyone.
As I wondered why God brought this particular song to my mind and then stressed that He was not a rolling stone, He began to show me examples of how the world is painting Him. That is what I want you to understand this morning so that your belief in your heavenly Father is not shaken when you witness or hear about bad things happening. As I go through the message, I’m going to read some of the lyrics of this song this morning, and please, if you start singing the song in your mind, please remember that God said this is not Him! As I read the lyrics, I’ll comment on some of the lines.
Verse 1: “It was the third of September, that day I'll always remember, yes I will, cause that was the day, that my daddy died. I never got a chance to see him, never heard nothin' but bad things about him, Momma I'm depending on you, to tell me the truth.”
I want you to focus on the line, “never heard nothin’ but bad things about him.” There are people today who truly don’t know God. Based on what they’ve been told, the God they know causes bad things to happen to people. Based on what they’ve been told, the God they know picks and chooses the prayers He answers. In other words, they haven’t heard “nothin’ but bad things about him.” People’s understanding of who God “can be” in their life is directly influenced by their earthly father/father figure or a father they never had. If they have a good father, they can see God as being a good heavenly father. If they had or have a bad father, it will be harder for them to see God as a loving father, especially when they read the stories of the Old Testament without understanding what God was doing in those days. If they did not have a father or father figure in their life it’s even harder for them to believe in God as a father who will always be there for them. But we will do well remembering what God told the Children of Israel in Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” Doesn’t this sound like a good father? How many good fathers would want something bad for their children? I know without a doubt that God has a plan for each of us and that plan does not include Him destroying us or not answering our prayers. Let me continue.
The mother replied: “Papa was a rolling stone, wherever he laid his hat was his home, and when he died, all he left us was alone.” The mother told her son that their father was a rolling stone and wherever he laid his hat was his home, and when he finally died, all he left them was alone. God wants us to know that He will never leave us alone! Period! No exception! There are times in our lives when we may feel like we are alone, especially when we pray and God seems silent. But Jesus made it clear during the Last Supper that we will never be alone. John 14:16-18 says, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” An orphan has no father or mother. Jesus says that we are not orphans. Praise God! Hebrews 13:5 also reiterates what God told Joshua in Joshua 1:5 and that is, “….I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Whereas when the father in the song died he only left the family alone, God wants us to know in these last days that He will never leave us alone! He will always be with us. We must believe that without doubting! I want to share a few more lines from the second verse.
It starts with, “Hey momma, is it true what they say that papa never worked a day in his life…” God taught us, His children, the importance and value of work back in Genesis 2 which says, “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. (Genesis 2:1-3) Now here’s my question: Why did God work? He worked to prepare a place for the son He would form, make and create. In other words, everything He did, He did for His son and His son to be wife. That was His motivation for putting in the six days of work. Think about that. God worked to create the perfect place for Adam and Eve. He “worked” to “provide” for his family. Also don’t forget what the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 3:10-11 which says, “For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.” The father in this song would not have been fulfilling God’s will for his life if he was not working. God works and He expects the same of us. God really wants us to know that He is actively working on our behalf today, right now!
I want to skip down to the last three lines of verse two. The words say, “I heard them talking papa doing some store front preachin', talking about saving souls and all the time leechin, dealing in dirt, and stealing in the name of the Lord.” I want you to hear me clearly on this because many in the world, especially some preachers of God’s Word, will disagree with my next statement. God is not leeching off of any of us! What do I mean by this? These last three lines describe what’s happening in the church today. There are those who are preaching and declaring that they are after souls but what we’re seeing in their lives are large homes, expensive cars and large bank accounts. Now don’t misunderstand me. There is nothing wrong with having these things, if they don’t have you. But if a supposed man or woman of God are gathering these things off the backs of their members by squeezing them into giving sacrificially more and more stressing this is the will of God then they are truly “dealing in dirt, and stealing in the name of the Lord.” Their actions give God a bad name and God wants us to know the truth about His character. Many people believe that God is not blessing them because they are not giving enough but the truth is this: God is our Father and WE DO NOT PAY HIM TO BLESS US!!!!
In verse three it further describes the life of their father. It talks about him begging; borrowing; and stealing to pay his bills while all the time chasing women and drinking. The image of this father is one who lacks any care or consideration for his spouse or for his children. Not only is he ruining his life, his life becomes a stain on the entire family as the family becomes known by the actions of the father. I lived this as a young man. My grandfather, a well-known minister in our community, made some mistakes that everyone knew about. People freely talked about some of the things he had done and was continuing to do. As I became a teenager and started hearing the rumors, I was embarrassed. One day I was mad at my father and my uncle (my grandfather’s son and mother’s brother) pulled me aside to straighten me out. He looked me in the eye and told me that unlike his father, my father loved my mother and was always at home, never running the streets. My father worked several jobs to take care of his family. And, while my father was not perfect, he loved me. Finally, he said he wished he had what I had and I needed to think about how I was treating my father. His counsel changed me because I was able to see my father in a totally different light. I am forever grateful to my uncle for setting me straight that evening forty plus years ago.
One of the things that we see in many Christians today is a misunderstanding of who God truly is and in order to form a stronghold belief about Him as our Father we must clear this up. They see the God of the Old Testament who rains down judgment whenever they do something wrong. And you hear it when they say things like “I have this sickness but I know God is using it to teach me to trust him.” Or, “I have this disease and I have been praying. That’s all I can do because God is in control.” Remember when hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans? City officials said God was passing judgment on the city because of events like the Mardi Gras. Really? I could be wrong but giving someone a disease to make them trust me or using a hurricane to teach people a lesson sure sounds a little dark to me!
I’m going to let you in on something that most Christians don’t know: God has already passed judgment on the world and that’s why Jesus died for us. When we see things like Katrina, what we’re seeing is what Romans 8:21-22 describes when it says, “That the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” The whole creation is being a “slave to corruption” and the creation is “groaning and suffering” like a mother in childbirth. We know that this is happening because of sin that Adam unleashed on creation in Genesis 3 and the weight of sin is getting heavier and heavier. So what we see happening today God is not responsible, Adam is and it’s not’s going to get any better until Christ returns. And that’s good news. Jesus came to show us who God really is. He is a father! The Old Testament couldn’t portray God that way because it was impossible for Him to be a Father to them. But Jesus came to show us exactly who our Father is. Praise God! Before I close we’re going to look at a few passages in John and First John that show us who God is as our Father and I hope you will use these verses to solidify your stronghold belief that God is truly your heavenly Father who is not sitting in heaven waiting to zap you with a lightning bolt every time you sin. Let’s start with John 6:38.
John 6:38: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Now I want you to think about what Jesus did as part of doing His Father’s will. Did He ever put sickness on a person? Did He ever curse a person? Did He ever approve of sin? Did He ever tell someone that to get God to move on their behalf they had to give sacrificially to the Church? If Jesus did not do it as a part of doing His Father’s will, then these things must not have been within the Father’s will!
John 8:29: “And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” Do we have the ability to always please our Father? Yes! Once we were born again, we received a nature that would allow us to always please our Father. And the biggest way we can please our Father is by trusting Him, by having faith in Him just like it says in Hebrews 11:6. “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” To please God we must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. He rewards those who seek Him – not curse them!!!
Remember the line “Never heard nothin’ but bad things about him” and God saying to me that is not him? In First John chapter one, I want you to see verse five. “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) The Apostle John says there is no darkness in God. What would be a darkness? Remember the examples I gave earlier? Hurricane Katrina would be a darkness. Giving a person a sickness or disease would be a darkness. Not answering a person’s prayer would be a darkness. Letting someone be born blind or deaf or not being able to walk would be a darkness. These things are not God! This is not our Father! The Greek uses the strongest word possible and it’s spelled “ou.” This word means the absolute negation of something. It says that there is no way possible, under any circumstances, that God can produce darkness. Are you understanding this? If we are to develop a stronghold belief that God is our heavenly Father then we must stop blaming Him for everything that is happening in this world today!
We also see this truth in James 1:16-17 which says, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” Our Heaven Father is the Father of lights. He’s always the Father of lights and that never changes. What First John and James describe about our Father is a STRONGHOLD! For our Father, always, always, always being “light” is a stronghold! Praise God! That means we always know what to expect from our Father. And First John also says this in a way that communicates to our hearts. And I want to close with this passage. You’ll understand as I read it.
Turn to First John, chapter four, verses 7 through 13. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.” (1 John 4:7-13)
The second stronghold belief that we need to establish is that God, our heavenly Father, loves us! Because He loves us, God made a decision. He sent His only Son to die for our sins to give us a chance to spend an eternity with Him. The love He demonstrated towards us was a choice to do something! And that choice came with a heavy price – the death of His Son. Oh how our Father and our Savior loves us!
On this Father’s Day I hope that you have a father or father figure that exemplifies the love that God has towards you. If you do not, please take my word, just this once, that your heavenly Father does love you. In fact, He loved you before you were even born and that is more than can be said by any of our parents. God loved us before our parents because he loved us before our parents were ever born. He loved us from creation! This is who our heavenly Father is and when you have this belief as a stronghold in your life you will know what He is and is not capable of. I hope that each of you have a blessed and wonderful Father’s Day.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. Our service Sunday worship starts at 9 a.m. and Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. Also, for use of our social media, you can find us at newlightchristianfellowship on FB. To get our live stream services, please make sure you “like” and turn on notifications for our page so you can be notified when we are live streaming. We also have a church website and New Light Christian Fellowship YouTube channel for more of our content. We are developing more social media streams so please stand by and we will notify you once those channels are up and running. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
