Fatherhood

Hello everyone. My name is Pastor Roderick caesar the third on the lead Pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle in Jamaica queens new york. And my prayer is that you would be blessed, you would be encouraged and strengthened by this word. Hope you enjoy God bless and Amen. Amen praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Want to wonder what a wonderful God we serve. He’s worthy of all of our praise, all of our adoration, all of our worship. So we’re just so elated and just grateful to be in the presence of God. For a few moments. I’d like to speak briefly about fatherhood. If you have your bibles, I’d like you to turn with me to the book of 2nd Kings. Chapter two Second Kings. Chapter two uh will be starting from verse seven, Second Kings chapter two verse seven. It won’t be before you long, but I just want to share some thoughts about fatherhood as it relates to fathers and Children. Second Kings, Chapter two verse seven right. The text reads 50 men of the sons of the prophets also went and stood at some distance from them as they were both standing by the jordans. Then elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water and the water was parted on one side to the other until the two of them could go over on dry ground. When they had crossed Elijah said to Alicia, Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you. And Alicia said, please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me. And he said, you have asked a hard thing. Yet if you see me as I am taken from you it shall be so for you. But if you do not see me it shall not be so. As they still went on and talked behold chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven and Elisha saw it and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen. And then he saw him no more and then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces. And he took up the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the jordans. Then he took the cloak that Elijah had fallen from him. He took excuse me, took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water, saying, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he had struck the water the water was parted on one side and to the other and Alicia went over. Dear God, we pray that you would be glorified as this word has brought forth. We thank you. We praise you. We give you glory. We ask these things in jesus name. Amen. Elijah was a prophet to the nation of Israel during the time of an evil king, one that did not have the heart or want the heart of God during the time, Israel was turning towards idolatry and away from God, Elijah was called to bring the people back to God to anchor the people in the truth of who God was and speak truth to power. Speak truth to the king who was in power but did not want anything to do with God. So this was Elijah’s task. God used him to minister to people uh to have great miracles to uplift people when they were down. And what we see taking place is he was used, he was pushed forward. He was a champion for the faith, the champion for the things of God. And uh, he uh basically did something that angered those that were in power. He did something that angered those that were in power. God was with him. God moved mightily through him. But those that were in power were angry and wanted him dead, wanted him killed. So he ran off, ran away and was in a deep state of depression, a deep state of anger, a deep state of despair. And at a low point in his life, not a high point at a low point in his life, Elijah was given instruction to mentor, teach and become a spiritual father to Alicia. At a low point in his life, God stops him and says, I’ve called you to deposit something in someone else for your good for their good and from my glory for your good for their good and for my glory. Why is this So this? This makes sense because iron sharpens iron. Iron sharpens iron. This this makes sense because God, how could you call someone when they’re at their lowest to deposit into someone else? Because we are created to uh be conduits, not reservoirs were created so that the spirit of God, the truths of God, the knowledge that deposited within us can be a conduit and given to someone else, not a reservoir, that just keeps it all to ourselves and hoards it all to ourselves. We are created to be our arteries. That God’s presence can flow through to pass on information, not clogged arteries that with our own with our junk that impede what God is trying to do and that stop us from passing information on. So in the midst of his sorrow, in the midst of his despair, Elijah realizes that, oh my gosh! Those in power are after me. They’re trying to kill me. They’re trying to wipe me out there, trying to throw me off. And so what he does is he runs to a cave and he cries and he says, Lord take me now, Lord would be better that I would never, I was never even born. He is in a deep sense of despair, a deep sense of sorrow, But aren’t you glad that sometimes when you feel like throwing in the towel, God does not throw in the towel on you when you feel like giving up, God does not give up on you in the middle of Elijah’s lament in the middle of Elijah’s despair. God lets him know that he is not alone. God lets him know him. No. Look, I’m with you, Elijah, God lets him know number one. You’re not alone, I’m with you. Number one. You’re not the only profit. There are others that are prophesying others that are teaching others that are leading others that are doing what I’ve called them to do in this dark and crazy world. You’re not alone. You’re not alone. You’re not alone. So he encourages him with that and then he lets him know number two, I’m not finished with you yet. You want to be done. You want to throw in the towel, You want to disqualify yourself? But God says, I’m not finished with you yet. We want to disqualify ourselves based upon our mistakes or based upon. Sometimes our circumstances, things can get too difficult and we want to uh stop progressing, stop moving forward. We allow the enemy to use those things to take us out to use those things to stop us from advancing. But every once in a while, we need a reminder that God has so much in store for us. God has so much in us. We need a reminder just like Elijah did that we have so much more to offer so much more to offer. So what we see here after this is uh, God says that you’re going to anoint Alicia, he will be your successor. You are going to pour into him. And that is exactly what Elijah does. He chooses Alicia. He redirects Alicia because Alicia wasn’t necessarily on a bad path. He just wasn’t on God’s path. See he was serving in his home, He was being a good son to his parents, He was plowing the fields with all of these oxen. He was doing wonderful things for his home and he came from a decent amount of financial background because he had all of these oxen that he was, that he was using to help him do his farming and do what he was doing. And but what we see here is when God called him when a life, when a lie just showed up on the scene, he said, you know what I have to surrender. So you see, there’s a responsibility both in the fathers and in the Children, there is a responsibility for the father to go and affirm to go and call, but there is a responsibility and the Children to say, you know what, there’s wisdom in what you’re saying. You know what I see God and what you’re saying, You know what I’m going to follow what you’re saying. So Alicia gets a new direction. Alicia now has a new mentor, a new father figure because Elijah trains him as a father would a son, he pours into him as a father would a son. Now let me just stop right there. Uh, for some of us, we may have had different experiences with our, our father for some of us are, fathers may have been present and that may have been a positive thing. Our fathers were active, engaged, caring, supportive for some of us are, our fathers may have been present and that may not have been a positive thing, whether we’re dealing with the abuse, verbal or physical abuse or rejection because the father is present but not engaged present, but not necessarily taking the time to spend the time or a father that is not present at all. Gone. Whether they’re passed away or incarcerated or whatever the reason there are absent and as now individuals having to grow up navigating the different type of fathers that we may have had individuals now we’re grown up and where fathers, fathers ourselves are grown up and where mothers ourselves, we are men and women and we’re trying to do the best we can with the example that we’ve been exposed to and it may seem like a very difficult thing, but I think it’s so important to know that you are not limited to or your ceiling is not your ceiling is not always what you’ve seen or haven’t seen. Your ceiling is not always what you’ve seen or hasn’t seen. I think it’s so important for us to realize that the father that we have in our lives, the first father, we start with the biological father, whether the president or not, that is not the only father that we can have. You see when I was I was a kid, I was about maybe seven or 8 if I’m not mistaken, maybe a little younger, but I wrote this song called Two fathers, right? And it was about me having an earthly father, hear my father bishop caesar on earth and then also one in heaven because in sunday school they taught us about God the father. So I wrote a song, I was like, do you know you have two fathers, right? And I’m singing and I’m minding my business and of course pastor Beverly caesar, my loving mother heard me sing it and faster than you could say, but mom, I don’t want to, I’m right here on this very stage for my father’s birthday or for father’s day or something and I’m singing this song about me having two fathers. But you know, the concept remains the same. The fact that we’ve come here naturally. So we all have a biological father whether present or not and we all have God as our spirit as as a father in the spiritual realm, but we can also have a mentor or a spiritual father as well, someone that helps to train us up in the faith, someone that helps to give us insight and foundation and when it comes to the matters of our faith, we can know, okay, just because my physical father was not present. It does not leave me without someone to run to. Just because my physical father was not present. I can still have another individual in my life that can teach me things that are valuable. That r truth that I can stand on. There is power of having a father in the life, whether it’s a physical father, biological father and adoptive father or spiritual father. And what should our response be as Children or as individuals to the father figure in our lives? The importance of fatherhood cannot be overstated. You see it can’t be overstated, but the responses Children can’t be overstated as well because time and time again when they were nearing the the the the time nearing the end of their time together, Elijah would say to Alicia, go, go, go, go don’t stay with me. Go this way, go that way, he would say please stay because God is calling me to Jordan’s, He said this to Alicia. Elijah says please stay here because God is calling me to go to the jordans and Alicia says as God lives and as you live, I will not leave you. So the two of them went on this happened time and time again, Elijah said go ahead, leave leave leave. Just to see how serious Alicia was about it. And Alicia said I’m not leaving. I’m not letting go. I’m not moving on. I will go with you. So the two of them went on for seven of chapter of Second Kings. Chapter two says that 50 men of the Sons of the Prophets also went and stood at the same at some distance from them and they were both standing by the jordans. And then we see what, what we just read how Elijah took the cloak and struck the ground. But what we realized here is that as sons and daughters, whether spiritual, whether physical, we should not fear intimacy or close connection. We should not fear intimacy or close connection as parental units as fathers. We should not fear intimacy or close connection. Now, I’m not saying that every situation is the same. Uh, but in some situations you may need to be wary of that. But in an ideal situation, you would not need to fear being a sense of intimacy with a father or a child in your life. And now what we realize is because There are 50 other profits in this school, but not all of them had the same access as Alicia. See there are 50 other profits in the school of profits that are learning from Elijah. But there are not all given the same access. That means that only Elijah and Alicia across through the George and all the other prophets just watched and waited because Alicia was given access as a spiritual son as a spiritual son. And now I think that’s so, so important because many of us, we run away from those close connections. We guard ourselves from those close connections, but you should not fear intimacy. And so what we realize is as fathers as those that are in authority, you have the ability to pass on more than just your last name or your physical genetics. As my, as my father stated, we should not be afraid to create a healthy spiritual culture in the home and as a child or as Children or as those that are under authority. You must not be afraid to embrace the spiritual culture. If it is christ centered and of a biblical uh biblical foundation, you should not be afraid to embrace that. You have to be sure that the bible is read that prayers are said that worship is a recurring thing and don’t be afraid to receive spiritual truths as well. And so we see, he asked something from Elijah. Elijah said, what do you want? Elijah said I want a double portion. I want what I see in you and I want it again. I want what I see in you and I want it again. And Alicia and I just said to him, he said, if you watch me and you see me when I’m taking up it’ll be yours. But if you miss the moment then you won’t get it. So what you see is is what you get if you, if you watch me and you see that I’m taking up, you’ll get it. But if not you’ll miss it. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven as they were talking, he said, you’ve asked a hard thing. You see me as I’m taken up from you, It shall be so, but if you don’t see me, it shall not be So verse 11. As they still went on and talked, they were conversing. They were just having a conversation in the middle of their conversation, chariots of fire and horses separated the two of them, and Alicia is looking at his mentor, his father figure be taken up by a whirlwind into heaven. He watches it. And as he sees this taking place, he says, my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen, and he saw him no more. Then he took, took hold of his own clothes and tore them into pieces. The last thing I’ll say is this took hold of his own clothes and tore them into pieces. Sometimes we as the recipient. We as the Children. Uh, we need to put away what’s good in order to embrace something that’s greater in order to embrace something that’s greater. And sometimes you need to understand that the knowledge that you’ve received from those that have gone before you is better than something that you perhaps could have thought of yourself. And so we realized, he said, I want this anointing, I want this anointing. So he took his clothes and tore his garment into pieces. Then he took what Elijah through. But Elijah cast down Elijah’s cloak and went back and stood at the bank of the jordans. The amazing part about this is he took off his cloak and put on ally Elijah’s and he had it and when he got to the jordans he said something amazing. He said, where is the God of Elijah? Where is the God of Elijah? And he struck the water and when he did this, the water was parted from either side and Alicia went over. So when he crossed the Jordan the first time it was Elijah doing the work and he crossed with Elijah. When he crossed the jordans the second time, it was a completely different scenario. He now had the authority. He now was the father figure. The sun became the father figure and he was the one that walked out and he didn’t say, where is the God of Alicia? Even though God was his God, he said where is the God of Elijah? Because he realized that the same miracle that I saw my father figure do can be done in and through me and I want to call on this example, I want to call on this God, I want to call on this God that I learned so much about through Elijah. So the question I have for us today is who are we learning from as fathers, Who are we learning from as Children? We are learning from our fathers and those that have authority over us. So who, who is it we’re learning from and what lessons are we going to take into the new seasons of our lives? Because there will come a day when you will be the Elijah, right. There will come a day when you will have to take the cloak or not take the cloak as we talked about last week and dismantling legacy and starting a new one. And so we have to realize what this is going to look like for us. Do an assessment and say, okay, is the legacy of the patterns that I’ve seen, Is this something that I want to take with me into my future, take with me into my destiny, take with me as I step forward or is this something I want to leave and cast aside and find a spiritual authority or a spiritual father figure or someone that I can be poured into someone that can pour into me so that I can be all that God has called me to be. And so I think for us, for fathers, it’s not too late to set a spiritual culture in the home. It’s not too late to become a spiritual father to be prayerful and to lean into all that God has for you and for Children, It’s not too late to seek out a spiritual father and become better as a result. So today on this father’s day, that’s my prayer is that we would lean into what God has for us. That we would say, you know what God, I’m going to lean in and be a better father. I’m going to lean in and be a better child, a better recipient of what this father or a mother in my life is teaching that we would lean in to what God has for each and every one of us. So we can be the people that he’s called us to be in this season. Dear God, I thank you so much for this time. I thank you for your people. I thank you for your word. I thank you for this father’s day. I pray Lord that as I’ve spoken father, I pray that this message has resonated with those that are listening. And I pray Lord that if there are those under the sound of my voice, that’s a look, I haven’t been a good father, that they would do what they need to do to get back on track that they would make a phone call, that they would write a letter that they would reach out and have some sort of engagement. Or perhaps maybe there are those Children because of the situations that took place there hardhearted or or don’t want any involvement with their father. And so I pray God that you would ease their heart, that you would help them father to let go of bitterness. Let go of anger and so that you can once again restore the hearts of the fathers back to the Children and the hearts of the Children back to the father. I thank you and I praise you God for this message. I thank you and praise you for what you want to do in the lives of your people. We won’t fail to give you the praise, the honor and the glory. We ask these things in jesus name, Amen and Amen. And now if you’re here under the sound of my voice and you don’t know, jesus christ as your Lord and savior, you don’t have a relationship with him and you want to know him. I’m just gonna ask you to repeat after me. I want you to repeat this prayer. Dear God, I thank you for who you are. I realized that I am a sinner and I want to come back to you. I want to come to jesus. I realized that you died for my sins and rose from the grave so I can be set free. I want to live for you. I thank you and I praise you for all you’ve done in jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen Heaven rejoices today. Thank you so much for listening and we hope to see you next week. God bless you. Hello again. Pastor roderick caesar third here, thank you so much for watching My prayer is that you were blessed. You are encouraged and strengthened by that message. If you would like to be a blessing to the ministry, you can text b g t f I 277977 Again, you can text b g t f I 277977 to sow a seed into the ministry. And we thank you. Thank you so much for your generosity. Or you can visit our website at b g t f I dot us for more information. Thank you so much. Once again, I hope you are blessed. I’m praying for you. We love you here at Beth. Oh, God bless.