Stay Close to the Father

Good afternoon, everyone. Nice to see you all today. It’s a beautiful day.

I want to say I’ve had a rewarding and beautiful experience with my earthly father. Now most in the room would agree, some maybe not as much. Maybe you have a bit of a challenging relationship with your earthly father. Maybe you never had the opportunity of having a relationship with your earthly father. Maybe you had a role model, a school teacher, a coach or someone that taught you about life or a way of life. But I’ve been fortunate in that way and I would say I’ve had a wonderful and rewarding experience growing up learning from my earthly father.

Now, I will say I’m the only son of my father of seven children. I have six sisters. So growing up and when I got into teenage, he wanted to make sure that I was learning the right things in life. He wanted me to be a man’s man. So once I had a bit of the muscles and I could begin to learn harder stuff, he recruited me immediately into his warehousing business and I was hauling beverages.

Now this were beverages that were about seven, I believe I would say seven fifty ml bottles and there’ll be twelve in each crate, and I started out lifting two and I was able to develop the strength to be able to move two crates at a time and then at some point you’d be able to start to move four. In other words, two on each arm. So I guess he was trying to make sure that I was being a man’s man. I was growing up developing the strength, the muscle to be able to work and provide for my family.

But definitely I would say I learned so much in different areas or parts of life that I am who I am today because of my dad. Okay. That’s one side of the story. As I continue to grow up, I eventually came to learn that my father teaching me, showing me the way of life was just one side of it. Actually in my life throughout, I also had a responsibility to him to allow him to teach me. I had to be willing to accept all of the things that he taught me about life. And like I say, I’m what I am today because of the things he taught me about a way of life, but I’m also a product of the things I accepted and the things I rejected from my father.

So whatever I accepted helped me. Whatever I rejected, I lost out in probably understanding some of that. The point being, our fathers show us a way of life. It’s a responsibility that they have. But we also have a responsibility to respond to what we have been taught and to accept it and apply it in our lives so that it will show us the way that we should go. Let’s turn to James four. Let’s contrast that with our Heavenly Father. James chapter four. James four, and we’ll start reading from verse one.

“From where comes wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence even of your loss that war in your members? You lost and have not. You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not. And when you ask, you receive not because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your loss.” So, painting a picture here of choices that we can make.

What choices are we making when we come before God, when we ask? “You adulterers...” Verse four. “...and adulteresses know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God. Do you think that the scriptures say in vain, the spirit dwells in us, that dwells in us lost to envy, but God’s spirit in us gives more grace. Wherefore, we say, or he says…” I beg your pardon. “God resists the proud.” So God’s spirit in us helps us to understand He resists the proud, “…but He gives grace to the humble.”

And verse seven starts to lay out the expectation that God has. “Submit yourselves therefore to God.” And that word “submit” means subordinate yourself. Subordinate yourself to God so that He will be able to teach you. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” And verse eight, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” It’s a promise. My lovely father loved me from the day I was born. He wanted me to learn the best way to go through life, to approach the difficulties of life. He was there when I was born, but I started to grow older and I had choices to make. And what did I do?

I would go to him to get counsel and, at the same time, open myself up for him to be able to teach me. And draw near there says it is to make near. That is approach, be at hand, come or draw near. So we have to approach God. We have to come near to God, and then He will reciprocate and draw near to us. Our Heavenly Father requires us to actually take that first step of drawing close to Him, and we’ll begin to see this as we go into the message.

We all are blessed with a calling from God and we responded to it, but there are a series of steps that we have taken and that God says He requires as we seek to draw and stay close to Him, steps that we must take for Him to also draw near to us. Let’s go to Psalm one forty-five. Psalms one forty-five. One forty-five and verse seventeen. Still setting this up to have the context of God’s promise of drawing near to us. He will, if we first draw near to Him.

Psalm one forty-five and verse seventeen, “The Lord is righteous in all His ways and holy in all His works. The Lord is near to all of them that choose to call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth.” Brethren, we all desire truth and we heard the truth and we responded to truth. We came to God in truth, and the promise here is evident again in verse eighteen. “The Lord is near to all that in truth will draw close to Him,” that will come to Him. And verse nineteen continues, “He will fulfill the desires of them that fear Him. He also will hear their cry and will save them.”

Today, brethren, let’s look at three essential steps that we must take in drawing near to God. Three essential steps that we must take in drawing near to God, is a required step or required steps that we must take as we want God to also donate to us and teach us our... I should say, continue to teach us His way of life. Before we look at those three steps, let’s go to Hebrews seven, twenty-two.

Let’s consider Christ’s rule. Let’s consider Christ’s rule and join us close to God. Hebrews seven. Hebrews seven and verse twenty-two. Hebrews seven. And we’ll start to read verse twenty-two. “By so much was Jesus made a surety for a better testament. And they truly were many priests...” Referring to Levitical priesthood. “...because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. But this man, Christ, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.”

Verse twenty-five, “Wherefore he’s able also to save them to the uttermost that come to God by Him. Seeing He ever lives to make intercessions for them. For such an high priests became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens. Who needs not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people. For this he did when he offered up himself.” He did it once and for all. Christ replaced the Levitical priesthood, which was not eternal. The Levitical was not eternal. But Christ died and rose again. And He is eternal and makes intercessions for us before God.

So why is his eternal priesthood important? Again, we’re talking about drawing close to God and the role that Christ plays in this process. We’re getting to the first step here. Why is Christ eternal priesthood important?

Let’s go to John fourteen. John chapter fourteen. John fourteen, I will start to read from verse one. “Let your heart not be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, and where I am there you may be also. And where I go, you know, and the way you know. And then Thomas said to him, Lord, we know not where you go and how can we know the way?”

And verse six, “Jesus responds, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.’ “So outrightly Christ is telling His disciples, “I am the path to which you can come or draw closer to God. I am that conduit.” And without Christ’s sacrifice, without Him dying, raising up again, and going before the Father, presenting Himself, we wouldn’t have access to the Father. We wouldn’t have access to the Father. We can’t draw close to Father. And we read in James four that God requires purity. And we just read in Hebrew seven, Christ was the vessel, that pure vessel through which we can access God.

So His gift of death on the cross is quite the blessing that allows us to now be able to confidently come before God, draw near to Him, and allow God to also now through that sacrifice teach us the way that we must go. And I think about it like my earthly mother, almost everything that… what happened to me would go through my mother to my father, because she would make the requests, and he would be able to provide whatever it was that was needed. If it was clothing, if it was some special item that needed to be bought, all of that would go through my mom. She was, you can say, interceding on my behalf as a child. And that’s the role that Christ plays for each and every one of us.

Christ eternal priesthood means that we have eternal access to God, eternal. The Levitical priesthood, whenever they came into the tabernacle, made the sacrifices, first for themselves, then they could make the sacrifices for Israel and they at that point had access to God. With Christ we have an eternal access.

It’s quite the blessing and it’s something we must hold dear and remember all the time. Christ’s sacrifice for us makes it possible for us to draw near to God. To take that first step of drawing close to God. Let’s turn to John six, forty. So again it is only through Christ that the Father in return can draw near to us as well because that’s the conduit.

John six and verse forty, “And this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which sees the Son and believes on Him may have everlasting life and I will raise Him up at the last day. The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I’m the bread which came down from heaven, and they said, is it not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose Father and mother we know? How is it then that he says, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said to them, murmur not among yourselves, no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day.”

And that’s how the Father also works. We through Christ have access to the Father, a blessing. And the Father through Christ draws us to Himself and can teach us. We’re all here, products of God’s Church, headed by Christ. And that is how we’re able to draw close to God and that is how He is able to come close to us. So what are these three steps? Christ’s role is important. Without Christ’s death we wouldn’t have access to the Father and through Christ the Father is able to teach us his way of life. So what are the three steps that we must all take, these essential steps that we must take to remain close to the Father?

I remember my baptism, and this probably will set up this point. We take symbolic actions during baptism. We put on the water, we’re brought up and hands are laid on a physical body and all of that symbolizes being buried. The old man, the new man, new creature, if you want, raises up and God’s spirit is given. And it’s at that point when those two physical acts happen that we are given God’s spirit. And when we are given God’s spirit, it sets, of course, in motion our journey, living a Christian life or life befitting of God’s way of life. But it also sets off a process in God’s mind. Let’s turn to Romans eight. Our baptism sets off a process in God’s mind, which is this first step.

Romans eight and verse eight. Romans eight and verse eight. “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of God dwells in you.” We all would say we know and are assured that God’s spirit dwells in us. Now, “…if any man has not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” And verse ten says, “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.”

We just went through the role of Christ. We begin to walk on the path of righteousness. We now know right from wrong. We now know the truth versus lies and we can walk in righteousness. Verse twelve, “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh, for if we live after the flesh you shall die, but if you through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.” Choices. “For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” They’re the ones that can draw near to the Father. We’ve now become sons. We now can approach our Father, our spiritual Father, and He can now teach us and draw close to us because He can do that through Christ who heads the Church that we are part of.

Verse fifteen, “For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we can cry…” as babies to our Father we can cry out. You think about a baby in their helpless state when they’re born. They can’t make any choices. They rely on their father and the father is always there as well as the mother to provide the love and the care and what they need to do to take care of the baby. So we have not received the spirit of bondage to fear, but we’ve received a spirit of adoption where we can cry to our Father.

And verse sixteen says, “The spirit…” of God, “…itself can now bear witness with our…” human, “…spirit that we are the children of God.” At baptism, brethren, God adopts us as His children. God receives a spiritually innocent baby, does not matter who we were in our past lives, it does not matter what we have experienced. Like we say. some of us may have had the opportunity to have wonderful fathers, taught us wonderful things about life, taught us how to go about making decisions in life.

Some of us maybe not as much. We didn’t have that blessing in life. Maybe we had others that stepped in and played that role. But the Father steps in at our baptism and He inherits or adopts, I should say, an innocent spiritual baby that He starts to nurture. He comes close as a Father. He holds us in His spiritual arms. He can look at us. When I was born I heard the story, I can’t remember it, probably too young to little to remember, but I know that my father came in, I believe it was probably a few minutes after I was born, and when he told him it was a boy, he said, “Go bring him to me.”

And the nurse rushed out, brought me out, and he picked me up in his arms and he looked at me, he said, “I’ll call you Salasi.” I’ll call you at this time because I waited for him. That is the joy of the father when we are baptized. He takes us in his spiritual arms and he says, “Now you’re mine. Now you’re mine. You’re going to begin to learn.” Again, what is that first step? We’re still working towards that here as we go through the scriptures. Now we have become the father’s, we’re in his hands, and then He says, “Now that I’ve adopted you as a child,” now He expects something in return.

We have to do something in return. Let’s go to First Corinthians six. First Corinthians six. What does the father expect from us as His adopted children. First Corinthians six and verse fifteen. “Know you not that the body...” I beg your pardon. “Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ, shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot, God forbid. What? Know you not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body for two says he shall be one flesh.”

So He’s teaching here about fornication and telling the church. Fornication is seen against the body, but in the context of fornication and seen against the body, he lays out even a bigger general application of how we should see our bodies. Because now God has taken over our body after baptism. So you read verse nineteen, “What know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which you have heard of God and you are not your own.” Verse twenty-four, “You are bought with a price.” We’re no longer our own, we’re bought with a price, “…therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, both of which are God’s.”

What does God expect in return after adoption? That we submit our physical body and our human spirit to his authority, that we submit our physical body and our human spirit to his authority because now His Holy Spirit is going to begin to walk with us. Now, He’s near, He has us close, He’s our Father, and He’s now going to continue to work with us through his spirit. But the first step is that we must submit our physical bodies and our human spirit to His authority. What does this look like? Let’s go to Romans twelve. Romans twelve, what does this look like?

What does submitting our physical body and our human spirit to God look like? Romans twelve, Romans twelve and verse one, “I besiege you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your body’s a living sacrifice.” We’re living sacrifices, I don’t know about you, but I think anything I’ve heard that has been sacrificed usually ends up dead. But we’re living and yet we are sacrifices, and that’s powerful. You’re no longer of yourself. You’re bought with a price, relieved that to God, and He is now going to come close and show you the way that you must walk.

But again, that is the requirement that He wants to be able to do so, to be able to show you the way to go, He needs your action of truly accepting and submitting your body. I have to do the same every day of my life, submitting my body, submitting the human spirit to be influenced by God’s spirit and to show me the choices and the way that I must go, not my own choices. At baptism, I lost that. I submitted it to God. I said, “God, take charge now of my body.” Now, if once upon a time I thought eating pork was a good thing to do, now I know I can’t do that in my body because what? It affects my physical body. Whatever it is that I practiced in the past, that affected my body, I can no longer do that.

Whatever kind of things that influenced me, I can no longer allow it to influence my body. I have to allow God through His spirit to show me the way that I must walk because now He has me in His hands. Now He has come close to me because I’ve taken the step of submitting my body and my human spirit to his influence. So we have to allow Him to show us the way that we must go by becoming living sacrifices. And he goes on to say, “Be holy, acceptable to God, which is a reasonable service.” And verse two, “And be not confirmed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your spirit that you may prove what is that good an acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace of God’s spirit that is now in us…” now as adopted children “given to me, but again not just to me,” Paul talking to the Romans here. “...but to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly according as God has dealt to every man, the measure of faith.”

And at this point, we begin to transition to the next step because now we have submitted to God our bodies. We have allowed His spirit to begin to influence our own human spirit and teach us the way that we must go. Now we’ve invited God closer to our lives and He is coming closer to our lives through His spirit, teaching us the things that we must begin to do.

And only when we do this and reject the ways of the world are we ready to draw near to God, and through His Spirit prove what is good and acceptable and perfect in His own eyes because then we give Him the opportunity to begin to show us the way of life that we should live.

I’ve never seen a baby when born that could make choices of their own. They were subject to the power of the mother choosing to feed them or not to feed them. They were subject to the power of the father choosing to provide for them or not provide for them. So right out of the gate, God takes us on as spiritual babies, and He begins to show us the way that we must walk. He brings us into His church. He shows us different ways that we must now begin to follow, doctrines. And at that point, we begin to learn and now something happens. We have the opportunity to take it all in and begin to react to what we are learning, which takes us to the next step.

Let’s go to Isaiah fifty-five and verse six. Our sinful lives challenge us every day after baptism, wanting us to go back to that form of life, wanting us to go back to those practices, but staying near to God requires we acknowledge we have become spiritual babies in God’s hands. He is now near us. We’ve chosen to submit our physical bodies. We’ve chosen to submit our human spirit to His influence and teaching, and now He has the power to now show us the way that we must go and the way of life that we must choose.

Again, this is only possible through God’s Spirit, but also starting from the fact that we submit to His authority so that God’s Spirit can help us to do that. Isaiah fifty-five and verse six, what is the second step that we now must take? “Seek you the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.” God is now near. Through His spirit, He’s in us. Through His spirit, we can learn. Through His spirit, we can understand. So He’s near.

“Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man His thoughts.” Forsake them, forsake the thoughts of the past. Renew your mind, you thought it was okay to do the things that you did in the past, but now with God’s Spirit, now that you’ve done close to God, you’ve allowed Him to now take over your body. And now He has authority and power over your body and your human spirit through His Holy Spirit, He’s now able to show you those things that were wrong. He shows you Sabbath is the way to go. You keep the seventh day holy.

He shows you His tithing law because it helps you to understand His way of life. He teaches you His way of life and tells you to leave behind whatever you thought was the way of life in the past. And it says, “Return to the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

We have taken that first step already and God has pardoned us. And now He says, “Your thoughts...” In verse eight. “My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.” So the next step is to submit or allow God’s word, I beg your pardon, to influence our way of thinking.

We must allow God’s word to influence our way of thinking. David acknowledged this. King David acknowledged this. Let’s go to Psalms one thirty-nine. Psalms one thirty-nine and verse one. We’ll read verse one. Psalms one thirty-nine, one. And this is King David writing about his understanding and experience seeing what God had done in His life. And he says, “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my downsitting and my uprising. You understand my thought afar off.”

Hence, what God said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts.” So God understood his thoughts and David is acknowledging here that God, verse three, “You have compassed my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.” You remain near to me, Father. You’ve been walking with me since I knew you. I have chosen you, I have come close to you, and now you are walking with me.

“For there is not a word on my tongue, but Lo, O Lord, you know it altogether. You have beset me behind and before. You are near me and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge that…” Father, you are around me all the time. You know my thoughts from afar off. “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it.” Your thoughts, in other words, are beyond my thoughts.” King David is saying, “Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? As I ascend up to the heavens, you are near. You will be there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are near.”

You know that. “If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, you are near.” Verse seventeen, “How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God. How great is the sum of them.” You are truly the Father that is now taking care of me by drawing me and showing me the way that I must go. And King David here is describing in detail, not just how God’s thoughts rank higher than his, but also how God constantly thinks about guiding and protecting us because we have chosen to draw near to Him.

Your thoughts show me that you are near all the time, is what King David is saying. Most of us have heard the saying, an apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. How many of us have heard that saying? An apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Let’s go to Luke six. That’s what God wants. God wants us to think like Him. God wants us to begin to mimic His way of life.

Because we’ve submitted to Him, He wants us to understand what He’s teaching us, and He wants us to practice that in our lives. Luke six and verse forty-three. Luke six and verse forty-three. “For a good tree brings not forth corrupt fruit, neither  does a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.”

So you can’t have a good thing come out of a bad thing, so to speak, generally, or a bad thing come out from a good thing. “For every tree is known by its own fruit. For by thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that which is evil, for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

So when we submit our body and spirit to God’s Spirit, because we’ve drawn close to Him, and we want Him to show us His way of life and to now direct our steps, He’s able to influence our thinking so that we can yield the right fruit. God in us means that we’ve accepted God and we’re the good tree. Now, He’s influencing our thinking so that we can produce fruits that are good. Galatians five twenty-two says, what are those fruits? I don’t need to turn there, I can read that for you.

Galatians five twenty-two, “But the fruit of the Spirit...” That is now in us, that can now yield the fruit, which is good. “...is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, and against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with their affections and lusts.” We’ve done that in the first step. We’re baptized and we’ve decided, “Father, we submit our bodies to you. We allow you through your spirit to take over our human spirit. Teach us the way that we must go. Now, please influence our thinking so that we produce the right fruit. We want to produce the right fruit in our lives.”

And the product of that is what we just read in Galatians five twenty-two, the fruit of God’s Spirit. But our thoughts must lead to actions, brethren. Our thoughts must lead to actions. Walk in there, in verse twenty-five of Galatians twenty-two. Galatians five twenty-five, I beg your pardon, walking there is an action verb. We need God’s Spirit in order to produce actions that show His fruit. So how do we allow God’s Spirit influence our thinking so that we can yield good fruit?

Let’s go to Second Timothy three ten. Second Timothy three ten. Second Timothy three ten. “You have fully known my doctrine manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience.” “My life has been an example to you,” as Paul writes to Timothy. “I’ve endured many things,” and he lists that out from verse eleven. “Persecutions, afflictions…” “in my travels, but I’ve endured all of them.” And then he goes on to say in verse sixteen, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” God’s Word represents His thoughts, brethren.

Every time we hear God’s Word, we’re hearing God’s thoughts. We’ve never heard God’s voice, but through His word, we can hear the way God thinks. We understand how God thinks. And through that, we say that we have profitable doctrine. We say that we have reproof. We say that we have correction, we have instructions. And all of it is to make sure that we work in the right path of life as God intends for us to do.

And verse seventeen says that, “That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” So God’s Word is the standard through which we learn how God thinks. Because we read His Word and we can understand God’s mind and we can take God’s mind and now do the third step, which is apply it in our lives and pursue the actions that draw us near to God. Let’s go to James one, James one and verse nineteen. Now we can draw close to God. We now know God’s thoughts, His mind through His Word, and we can now take actions that draw us near to God.

And basically, these are the tools of Christian growth that we have at our disposal. These are the tools that have been opened up to us. James one and verse nineteen, “Therefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word.”

We’ve done that in the second step. We’ve embraced God’s mind because we understand His Word and His truth. And he goes on to say in verse twenty-two, “But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if any be a hero of the word and not a doer, he is like a man beholding himself in the natural face in the glass for he beholds himself and goes his way and straightaway forgets what manner of man he was. But who so looks into the perfect love of liberty and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his actions and his deeds.” We can lay aside our thoughts, embrace God’s thoughts, allow Him to show us the path of life, and now begin to walk in the way of embracing the things that He’s showing us. And how do we do that? Because now we can come before Him in prayer. It’s the actions that we take.

Now we can come before Him in meditation, in His creation and understanding the blessings that He’s put before us. Now we can fast and draw closer to God and allow Him to lead us through the difficulties of life that we are dealing with and show us the things that we must do. Now we can exercise God’s Spirit that has been given to us.

And brethren, submitting in that first step our bodies and our human Spirit to God, and through His Spirit, allowing His word to show us His thoughts, we can take actions that allow us to begin to draw closer and closer to God and remain close to God in our Bible study, in our meditation and fasting and exercising God’s Spirit.

Now we can stay close to God and allow Him to lead us every day of our lives making the decisions that a father would want to see his son, his child, take and make sure that we can make it into God’s kingdom. So, in conclusion, brethren, when we submit our bodies to God, our thoughts will be righteous and our actions will be godly, reflecting our Father whom we have chosen to draw close to.