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for the person whose father never showed up. But at the same time, I must also say, it's for the father who showed up, but with money, but never with himself. the message is also for the one who's still waiting even now as a grown adult for a father to run towards them and the worst part of it is it's for the dead who think that paying the bills and keeping the roof on that's the whole job I'm also praying praying that this morning that this message as it goes out it will not just land on the ears but land on the heart of the fathers how can you give your how can you give your child's mother the, do you call it the the scepter of a father because you are not there. If somebody say, as a father I wasn't there because of work it's not an excuse to say for the least. But we're also speaking about the dad who thinks that the body on the couch and the mind on the phone is being present. We're not speaking about that father. We're also speaking about a father who had a wound of a father. Because your father wasn present now you following in his footsteps This is the message. This is who the message is for. We were taught that the father's job is to provide. Bring in the money. Keep the house. And pay school fees. That's it. That is what we've been taught. That is why even up till today, we think that's the only job of a father. So men provide and call it fathering. You know, like some of them even brag, look, I bought my son and me two T-shirts. We are looking together. That's not the fathering we are talking about. So today, the message is about the father that has also been waiting for a long time for somebody to close the distance. Because this is what happened. Some fathers are not gone because of the reason they left. Some fathers are gone because the woman left. Or must I call it the mother left. Some mothers doesn't even want their children to know their father's name. nor do they want to even know who their fathers were because of the pain that they went through and now it affects the child this is who the message is for so don't think it's just for a father it also goes to a mother but there's a better way of looking at things than just having the whole picture about a father Because some of us we have the tendency to think that everything falls on the father Some things also falls on the mother. Some things also fall on the family. I don't think that the two people aren't together because they wanted not to be together. No, no, no, no. It's their father's father that told him not to go to that woman's house after giving birth to your child. and here there's a lot of reasons why a father couldn't be with their children and yet we only talk about the fathers that went to go and buy soap but yet we don't understand the pain that they somehow go through at night thinking I wonder I wonder if this one have at least something to wear because remember something there there's some mothers that have maybe three children with different fathers and now the father feels that whenever they send something to the one kid the mother might be using it for all three kids and yet they don't want they don't want to do you call supply because they're thinking that the mother will then use that towards the other kids these are the ones that you think what must I do as a father I so much want to send that money through. I so much want to buy those clothes. But it looks like the two of them wear the same size It might be just something for the other one as well But I want to tell you today There is a father Who does not Put a certain. Do you call it a. Child. To be higher than the other one. There is this father. Who is called Jesus. and as much as you think I would like to speak to you about the father not being present it's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about the father that literally had some time to what's that word I'm looking for embarrass themselves for their children. Let me talk about the father who is cleaning drains, working with not, we call it when I go to work, this is a shit job. They work literally with shit. These fathers that embarrass themselves so much that they stand in the street cleaning and sweeping streets just for the child to have something. Embarrassing father that sometimes doesn't even have Roland for himself. And yet make sure the child have even the loan, not just Roland. They embarrass themselves by going to work and literally looks like a rubbish bin, but still doing it for the children. And then you find ungrateful woman still telling you, you must do more than what you already have done. Sometimes when you have a hundred rent and you give 20 rent to your child, it's already a 20% of what you have. But yet The mother doesn't understand that. The man is too embarrassed to say, I only got paid only 100 rent. My transport is 60 rent. I'm only sitting left with 20 rent that I need to buy food with. and of this 20 rand that I have to buy food with I still have to also use to literally put a roof on my head but yet the ungrateful ones so I want to take this moment and I want us to read Luke 15 verse 20 Let us read Luke 15. Now, Luke 15. And we read verse 20. today this glasses doesn't do it for me. I don't know what's wrong with the glasses. It feels like they are dirty, but at the same time it doesn't. So when we go to Luke 15 and we read verse 20. Now, verse 20 says the following. And he arose and come to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, he father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. we also read Matthew 1 verse 24 Matthew 1 verse 24 and 25 there's two things playing out here which I will get to now Matthew 1 verse 24 and 25 says the following Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his wife and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son And he called his name Jesus. now what we read we read as the prodigal son it's the story of a prodigal son but what we don't know it's not the story of a prodigal son that we actually read here there's something else hidden in this as well this is a a boy who messed up badly but the picture of God in that story is not the son no don't get it wrong it's not the son the picture here is the father. And this is a picture of a father who does something that nobody would expect. Now, if you're looking at the culture here, the culture of this specific man, the culture was an old man did not run. They were not allowed to run. but yet this guy came and he ran the culture was when you run wait let me this this The culture here when you run what happened is that at those times they were wearing a robe That when you run too much or too fast, you have to lift up your robe. and when you lift up your rope your legs get shown and in those years old men were not supposed to to do that so this man make himself to look like a fool for doing that to run to his son Now the father ran anyway, regardless of whatever the culture was saying. He still ran towards his son. He took the shame so that the son would not have to walk the last stretch alone under the village's stairs. Let me explain to you. If you know the story of the prodigal son, you would understand the embarrassment for a father to see his son that he knew he thoroughly dressed him before he left. For a son to come back looking like a pigsty. The embarrassment before the villagers or the people of that time. Make him, instead of letting the son walk alone, the walk of shame. Let's call it that way. The walk of shame. You know the walk of shame is when you went out, you went with your Ferrari. But when you come back, you come with two feet. Two feet. That doesn't even have shoes. Because you had to sell everything that you have just to gain something to eat Now when you walk as a son inside a place where you were seen as this Nkakara, you know, the big guy, and when you come back, let me also say this, Just to make you aware of today's life. Do you know some people don't want to go home because of they afraid that how they left home, they were better off than what they are now. So when this guy walked towards his father and his father saw that he doesn't want to cause this guy shame, He rather ran towards him. So this is not a story about the boy coming home. It's about a father that could not stand still and wait for him. Now the Greek word or the Hebrew word for run, the Greek is dramon. It comes from treko to run. and to run a race, to run with everything in you. It's not that way you call I'm running. No, it's a sprint. That's what the running is. It's the same route used for an athlete, sprinting for the prize. now this was not a slow dignified walk to meet the son halfway this was a father sprinting rope up dignity down because the distance between him and his child was unbearable he couldn't let the child keep walking the walk of shame so my question to you is when you're looking at what is happening at this when this scene played off what goes through your mind because all along we've been talking about the messages about the prodigal son. But have we had a look at the different angles of this specific place or this specific scripture in the different ways that it comes together? Probably before today, you might have not seen that part. you might have not understood that part you might have not even know that that part do exist you might have not but here comes a father telling them telling the what they call the villagers how much I don't care about you as villagers I care more about my son because you know what what what gossip does. Gossip makes us not to do certain things. Let me explain what I mean by this. If you are afraid, people will call you names. You will rather not do the thing that you're supposed to do. Let me make an example. If you know that you must start a business and you start telling people I'm starting a business and you fail. You know that the whole neighborhood will speak about you being a failure. So your embarrassment is that I rather not start to be called a failure. And that is what makes the problem. And that is what makes the biggest problem in society. In society, they're too afraid that they will be the scanner topic. What is the gossip topic? God saw you. He saw you. When you were still A great way off And he ran He closed the distance first He did not wait for you to grovel your way back. He did not wait for you to grovel your way back. So when you move, be a father in action. Run towards your people, showing up. Close the distance with your children, your wife. and the ones put in your house. I need to explain three ways, or let me just say ways, not three ways, but ways what a father in action actually does. The number one is he runs, he chooses the distance first. So a father in action does not wait to be approached. Let me explain what I mean by doesn't wait to be approached. You know, some kids, what they do is they won't tell you what they need until you already decided. I remember, was it? is is laverne or nashante one of the two i can't remember walking with shoes school shoes for a long time having the holes underneath and do you know what that school shoes does it pick up the clothes the the the stones So every time you walk, it's like, or whenever you want to just get on the floor, the stone under the shoe makes you to slide and fall. Probably in the shantaya. But she didn't come to us and ask us, can you buy me some shoes? No. She walked without shoes for a long time. Until my wife saw it. I don't go to the kids room. I especially woman room. I don't. I will go there when I need something that is urgent Otherwise I will ask them to go and bring it to me Because I have respect for their rooms And this one, my wife had to tell me, did you see? So I had to go and walk towards her. And that is how Jesus does. before you can speak to him. He want to spare you the embarrassment. And he will go towards you first. And I want you to understand that it's like, picture this, ne? When the son was on the pigsty, do you know what he did? He rehearsed the apology letters. The apology, I mean sentence, sorry. not letter the apology sentence i'm so sorry my father i've messed up big time and this is you know like you know when you when you know you've messed up you already put your words together and by the time you get to your father the only thing that you want to do is make sure You say the right words. But here comes the father to spare you that embarrassing words. He ran to you first. And this is what a father does. God ran to you first before you can give him that embarrassing words. but sometimes our problem is not that we can't hear God we think God must sound holier than thou I wish I can I can take this moment and make you understand that religion has made us to get to a point where we must speak to God. Holy art thou. I'm praying. But I don't want to pray. I pray. You know, you sound to God as if you are a burden to God Religious people has taught you wrongly you are not a burden to God you better speak to God about your situation than to speak to somebody else who will gossip about your situation tell God I am tired tell him straight as a man I can't take it why do you have to say it to a human being who will take the same words and go and gossip about you I speak to God I swear to him I'm telling him straight I say to him hey man you this and that and the other I'm not going to use the words that I use but what I'm trying to say is that it's I'm human when I'm with God I make sure that I tell him I am a human being you are God you have it all figured out you are God because you already were doing this way before I could do it you had it figured out I don't have it figured out as a man I don't even know where am I going to get my next electricity so I'm telling him hey this week specifically this week that has passed it was so tough for me listen to these words I'm making my kids rich to help me. I will explain. I'll explain now. I give to Lytton, Levin and Lachey some money. When it comes to mid of the month, imagine I have to borrow money because I'm so broke. Borrow money from the rich kids. I had to tell God imagine how can I as a provider go to my children and and look for electricity. Lytton got hurt. We had to pay for the medical, what do you call that thing? Not medical, what's that thing? The pill-a-man. Prescription, yeah. We had to pay for the prescription. I didn't even look at my wallet because there's nothing. I couldn't. If it wasn't for my wife, we would have walked away from that place and said, Ish, there's nothing. Went to the chemist because the same time as Lytton got hurt, Lachey also got this allergy thing that fingers start growing big and swelling, and the toes start swelling and a lot of spots on the body thinking that maybe the medical aid will pay for this tablets or this prescription. How about next? They didn't pay for it. That prescription is still there. I am being myself. I'm telling you. I'm not hiding behind me being the pastor that is supposed to be having it all figured out. No, I don't. I don't have it all figured out. I sometimes struggle as well. And this is why I take the time and tell God, hey, bruh, imagine me telling the people how great this God is. But the embarrassment that happens at home is different. than what I tell people. So please God bless me so that I can be a blessing unto others and give my testimony according to the blessing that you have been given. Psalm 103 verse 13. Psalm 103 verse 13 says, like as a father pitied his children so the Lord pitied them that fear him Psalm 103 verse 13 Picture this. And here you think God doesn't care about you. But his own word. Remember he says he takes his word higher than himself. So if his own word says, according to Psalm 103 verse 13, like as a father pitied his children, so the Lord pitied them. And not just them, but them that fear him. My question to you is. do you have a God that feel like he pity you or do you have a God that feel like he doesn't care about you because he does pity you let me let me explain something wait wait let's read this Matthew 1 24 Matthew 1 24. Before I go to the next point. Now, Matthew 1 24 says the following. Matthew 1 24 says, Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his wife. And took unto him his wife. Let me tell you the story about this one. This man just heard my wife or no, let me say his wife got pregnant. But he knew for a fact that me, I was not with this one. I never was with this one. Now, Joseph found out the woman he loved was pregnant and he knew it was not his He knew it was not his child He had every reason to walk away. He had every reason to walk away. Did he? No, he didn't. The shame was real. my question to you is did he stay because of at that moment he felt too embarrassed to walk away knowing that this is not his child no he didn't as a father he had to stand in the gap I wish I can say this the way I want to say it but I will say it anyway I know they will come for me they will come for me everyone on the internet will come for me because of what I'm about to say. You think you are a stepchild or a stepson or your father is not with you anymore. Picture this. Jesus was raised by a stepfather. Huh? And you think you are the only one with a stepfather. Jesus was raised by a stepfather. Jesus was that child that was actually asking who is my father? Because I don't look like this guy. Nor do I look like my mother. Who Where am I? I wish I could have seen the color. Maybe it could have been that, you know up Africa the people are a little bit darker than normally Maybe he was dark and the mother was white I say maybe. I don't know. I don't know historic or whatever the thing is. Because I know for a fact that a Zulu guy, you find him white like me. And you can't believe this is a Zulu guy. I'm just saying, imagine that where Jesus was pitch blem having a white mother. Father doesn't look like him. I'm just saying. And here you think you are the only one who's excluded. No, you're not. but this man knowing it's not his son he showed up even when the time when he was preaching in the synagogue or not preaching, teaching in the synagogue he was the one who looked for Jesus do you remember what they're saying his parents were looking for him he didn't say his mother was looking his parents were looking for him he showed up I want to take this moment and let you understand that sometimes we do embarrassing things as fathers but yet this is not just about fathers but it's about parents because some parents they are more of a father than what they are mother more of a mother than what they are father I sometimes love when I look at my life from the time when my firstborn were born. I was the one who changed the Nepist. I was the one who take the first bath of my first boy. The first bath, the first time when he was washed, I was the one that washed him. At the tender age of 17. Now, for a 17 year old, I did. I am not telling this to make the child's mother to sound like she doesn't know what she's doing. I'm just saying sometimes we are more as a father than what the mothers are. A mother. But we don't brag about it. I sometimes think to myself that I feel like I'm not doing enough for my children. And I feel sometimes I feel like crying at night time. You know like that way you feel like Ishman, what now? But yet I think I have done something. even if it's not enough I've done something it's worth the effort of just a small thing so no one day when you are a father you will understand your craft you at your age do even more than most fathers I've seen do for your siblings? Do you know that? Some fathers... Thank you so much. Because you stand... Yes, you are. Guys at your age will tell you, no, me, I want to go to the friends. and yet you stand for these siblings of you You are more than a father than what most fathers are I don't even know how to explain it. That is what a father is. To be there. It's a pity they can't call you father. But you do the things that fathers does. yet you have not been a father as yet. That's all you have to do. That's being in fatherhood. Stand wherever is necessary. Show discipline wherever is necessary. That's what you have been doing. Don't tell me I am not coming to your house. I don't even know what I'm talking about. You will be surprised. Some people think that when we are sitting at our houses, God is not at your house. I sat at my house. I listened to God telling me, have you seen? This guy was doing one, two, three, four, five. then we we talk about the things that fathers go through one thing about the father there is a father hands out identity and blessings before they get, they earned it. I mean, a father in action speaks worth into his children before they have done anything to deserve it. Levin can tell you now, have I ever prayed loud on her head and say, you're a sin. God bless you. And I pray that you're... I don do that thing in front of them I don want to show off as if I am the one The reason I prayed for you is the reason why you make it big No, no, no, no. I want you to realize that I have not done the prayers unless God asked me to do it. And still you get blessed by God, not by my hand that I've put upon you. I'm of the opinion that when my son broke his leg now on Tuesday, when he get into the hospital and they were explaining and explaining, I think fear took a little bit over or the pain took over his life. and he said to me, Daddy, please pray for me. I laughed and I'm like, do you think I'm not praying for you? No, I know you're praying. I said, no. Do you think I'm not praying? You get my point. I don't do the prayer like a rabbi-saka rabbi-dabbi-dabbi-dabbi. No, loud prayers. No, it's not necessary. God is the one who do things, not myself taking the glory for what God has done. Remember, if I pray for you to have something, it does not mean I was the one that makes you to get it. God is the one that gives it. that is why the prayer should not be the reason why somebody come back to you and say your prayers was working no they must say God was working this message is this message is has a way of coming out too strong for me today sorry if it's too strong that's it sorry God the Father said over Jesus This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased That was way before Jesus had preached one sermon or has done one marital way before the time So when a father gives you the blessing way before you deserve it, you must actually say, Yo, thank you, God. You must say, thank you, God. I am reminded of some children are looking for a hand clap their whole life and yet could not find any. Let me explain. Daddy, I have cleaned the room. Daddy doesn't say donkey. No, thank you. Next. Daddy, I have cleaned your car. Next. Doesn't say well done. Yo. Let me not explain it too much. but some kids the only thing they wanted from their parents was just an acknowledgement they are doing well god gives it to you before you do it god gave it before you do anything and here is the thing that you should understand Jesus has come to give it to you way before you have earned it. Way before you have earned it. Let's read Ephesians 6 verse 4. You don't have to go there. You can just write it down. Ephesians 6 verse 4. here fathers provoke not your children to to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Malachi 4 verse 6 and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers that's Malachi 4 verse 6 lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. You know, my second name, I've earned it from a grandfather that I've never seen. Now, my grandfather was called David. When they called him David, whenever somebody speaks about him, they will tell you the prophet that was traveling the whole northern Cape by foot, going to prophesy to people by foot. although I did not know him because he died let's call it I was one year or I was it was one year before I was born or one year after I was born somewhere around there but I don't know him I carry his legacy even up till today although I didn't know He already blessed me at that time. Some of you have been waiting your whole life for a father to run towards you. Hear this You have a father who already did You have a father who already did You have a father who already did He saw you a great way of and ran to you. And some of you are fathers right now repeating that was done to you. Providing, providing, but never running. present but never close the job was never just about the money the job is to move first stay when it's hard and hand them your worth now next week next week one question and it's going to sting a little This is my message for next week. It's going to sting a little. It's going to be painful a little bit. Why are you so tired? Not the kind of tired that sleep fixes. The kind where you lie down at night and your mind still does not switch off. The birds, the kids, what ifs, I'm going to show you a man who slept like a baby in the middle of a storm. So bad that it had grown experienced men screaming for their lives. And exactly why you cannot sleep like that Come back and find out how Heavenly Father, today I want to take the moment and pray for fathers and for mothers as well as children. Especially for those fathers who is absent, not by choice, but by circumstances. I pray be with them. Take the time and be the real father to them so that they don't feel like failures. I also want to pray for the father who is absent by choice. I pray that that father will be running towards their children. Today I also want to pray for the father who keep on running towards his children but doesn't get a thank you or any gratitude for that matter. Please, Lord Jesus, be with them now and show to them, even in all this, you are the one that is still there showing up In Jesus mighty name we pray Amen and amen Now, as you know that when it comes to a service, we do ask for offering and tithes. but what we do is we don't emphasize on it. So if you have your tithe and your offering, you can bring it. And this won't be used for my clothing, for my house, or for my car. I just want to make sure that we are clear on that one. This is used for what God has asked us to do it. Heavenly Father, bless the ones that give. less those who cannot give. But we know, Father God, as your word says, when we bring, you will give back good measures, pressed down, shaken together, running over in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Let's share the benediction. Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest and abide with us all until Jesus comes, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. In Jesus name. Amen. And amen.
