Roger Marsh: Well, welcome to Family Talk. I'm Roger Marsh, and today we have a special program for you. Dr. Dobson has selected a sermon from a ministry friend to share. Pastor Brenen Beeler is a committed Christian who has chosen to serve the Lord by leading the non-denominational church called Regenerate Church in Southern California. His teachings are filled with thoughtful encouragement. They really send people right back into God's word for further study. This sermon was presented on a Father's Day a couple of years ago, and it's proven to be relevant not just for those days, but really, for any day of the year, especially these days when manhood is under attack. Now, we've divided Brenen Beeler's presentation into two parts. Yesterday, of course, we heard part one, and today we present to you part two of this powerful message with an even more powerful conclusion. By the way, if you miss any part of today's program on terrestrial radio or you want to access the entire sermon, you can find it at our broadcast page, drjamesdobson.org/familytalk.
Fathers have such an important impact on families and I love my dad to pieces, actually. He's had such a tremendous impact on me as I was growing up. One of the fondest memories I have of my dad is the fact that he was not necessarily an athletically-minded guy. He liked to watch, but he wasn't much of a participant, and yet what it came time to introducing me to the major sports, especially baseball, my dad was the guy who did that, bought me my first baseball glove, took me to a local park, taught me how to play catch. We may not have played catch more than five or six times after that in my entire life, but I still remember that one moment at Michigan Park and Whittier tossing the ball back and forth with my dad. Good times, indeed.
I believe dads are unsung heroes in our nation today. Unfortunately, fatherlessness is destroying many families and also the fabric of society. If more fathers were committed to setting a good example to leading their families and modeling Christ's behavior on a daily basis, the changes could and would positively impact future generations as well as their own families today. In Proverbs 22:6, we read, "Train up a child in the Way he should go, or she, and when they are old, they will not soon depart from it. God provides the blueprint and the pattern to follow for a dad to raise His children well."
Now, if you're not familiar with the ministry of Brenen Beeler, let me share a bit about him. Pastor Beeler is the founder and lead pastor of the non-denominational church called Regenerate Church in Orange County, California. Brenen Beeler is married to his lovely bride, Morgan, and together they have three children. Okay, let's listen now to part two of Pastor Brenen Beeler's sermon discussing how important fathers are for the spiritual, mental, and physical health of their families and their kids. That's right here today on Family Talk.
Pastor Brenen Beeler: Now, here's the application for us today. 1 Corinthians 6:19, now New Testament, it says this, "Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you and was given to you by God?" In the Old Testament, God was limited to that holy of holies. His presence was there over the Ark of the Covenant where the high priest, one man on one day of the year, the day of atonement, would be able to enter in and get a glimpse of God's glory. In those days, people would go to the temple just to feel near to God, to worship God. But now, New Testament, when Jesus Christ died on the cross and He said, 'Tetelestai,' it is finished."
We are told in the gospels that that veil, that was the wall that separated the holy of holies from the holy place in the sanctuary, God's presence from people was torn in two, ripped from top to bottom as if God just ripped it from Heaven, symbolizing and signifying this truth, that God's presence isn't just for one person on one day of the year, but God's presence is for every person every day of the year, and so now, New Testament, when you open up your heart to Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes in and resides within your body, your life. It's the power of the Holy Spirit. When you open your life to Jesus, it's no longer you trying to be a better person, but it's simply the empowerment of the Spirit to be who God has called you to be.
Paul, picking up in that, says to the Corinthian church, "You have to realize that your body now is the temple of the Holy Spirit." Listen, here's the application. David wanted to build Solomon's temple, but Solomon ultimately was the only one that could build Solomon's temple, and you as a dad, maybe as a mom, a parent, wish that you could make all the decisions for your kids, that you, even for your adult children, wish that you could build their life because you know what would be best, what would work best, and what they should do.
But listen, there comes a time where you can't. Dads, you might not be able to make every decision for your kids, but here's what you can do, and this is not only for fathers here today, but this is for single men, this is for married men, this is for moms, and single ladies. This is for every single one of us here today. Here's what you can do. It is your responsibility as a person to provide the pattern for others to follow in the way that a godly person looks like. You are to provide them the pattern with your life that they are to follow. "Hey, I can't do it, but you can. But here's what I can do. I can give you everything necessary, the blueprints, the pattern for you to follow that if you simply follow the pattern that God has given, then your life will be built in the way that it needs to be."
"How am I supposed to build my life?" Listen, God has given to you the blueprints. He has given it to you in writing. It is the Word of God, the living word of God, His instructions for your life. It's been very cheesy and classically said that the Bible is the acronym for Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, B-I-B-L-E. Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. But in reality, God's Word, it's the blueprints for us to build our lives upon. It's the blueprints for others to be able to follow. Listen, men, the very fact that you are here today on this beautiful sunny day, you've chosen to be here saying, "The plan is making the Lord a priority," and by simply doing that, just by being here, not counting on the devotions that we need to be leading our families in, and family Bible study, but simply just by being here today is making a huge difference.
Do you realize that? For you to lead your family to the Lord is making a huge impact in the future of their lives? Your son, your daughter, our kids, they are looking to dad to provide the pattern. They're looking to the father. The reason why that has even greater impact, when the dad says, "Even when my wife isn't going to get up and make the kids breakfast, even when my wife is going to sleep in on Sunday mornings, even when I have to get the kids ready, and do the extra work, and even if I have to take the kids to church by myself, I'm going to church. As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord."
When dad makes that as a priority, and the kids see when dad does it and when they see that in dad and his commitment to take the family and to lead the family to church, that has a lasting impact in kids, more so when Mom does and Dad never goes because in the family God has designed it to be where the man of the house, the father is called to be the spiritual leader. It's time for the godly men to put on the spiritual pants of the home and to lead their family unto the Lord. Like Joshua said, "As for me in my house, we will serve the Lord." It is a non-negotiable. This isn't something that we might do on some days and not do on other days.
Some parents say, "You know what? My kids, it's really hard to get them to church on Sundays." Yeah, welcome to the club, but I'll tell you this, it's a lot easier to get them to church when you don't give them an option. When they see dad that says, "You know what? Are we going to go to church today? Maybe not today. We'll go next week." Guess what? When you go every other week, or you go once a month, guess what the kids do? They know there's another option. They know, "We don't have to go to church every Sunday, so Dad, I don't want to go to church today. Dad, I don't want to go to church today. Mom, I don't want to go to church today." Then it becomes a fight to get your kids to church, and parents with even little kids say, "Oh, it's just really hard to fight my kids to take them to church. I'm just tired of having to fight them to get them to church," and they're three years old, there's a problem.
But I've found this very real truth. Guess what? My kids, we go to church every Sunday. It's not because I'm the pastor of the church, it's just what we do. We put the Lord first, and because we put the Lord first, they don't know anything different. They don't know, "Oh, Mom, Dad. I'm just going to stay home today. Let's just stay home from church." They don't have that option. Guess what? They don't fight us to go to church.
When you don't give another option, when you, like Joshua, says, "As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord. We are going to be involved in ministry. We're going to be a part of our church, congregationally. We're going to go to serve and to pour out our lives and we're going to talk to people after service and we're going to have community and we're going to pray for people after service and we're going to see not what we can just get out of church, but who we can bless and give to in church by being a part of the body of Christ," listen, your kids are watching. Even your adult children. Listen, grandparents, your grandbabies are watching. We have the responsibility as godly men and godly women to provide the pattern for our children, but not only limited to our kids, but it's also for all those who would be watching and looking at our lives.
You've heard the saying that, "You might be the only Bible that someone ever reads." They might not open up the Bible, but they are watching your life. Is it true that they see Jesus in you, a man or a woman devoted to seeking after and serving the Lord? We have that responsibility to be leaders and men especially to be the spiritual leaders in the home.
Roger Marsh: If you're just tuning in, you are listening to Family talk. I'm Roger Marsh, jumping in for a brief moment to remind you that you're listening to Pastor Brenen Beeler sharing his Father's Day sermon about why a father or father figure is so important for the sanctity of families. Brenen Beeler is the founder and lead pastor of Regenerate Church in Orange County, California. And now let's rejoin Brenen Beeler on this special edition of Family Talk.
Pastor Brenen Beeler: Ephesians 6:4 puts it this way, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way that you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord." You are called to give your children the pattern in which they are to build their temple by virtue. Just by simply being at church has a huge impact in their life by providing the pattern for them to follow and to build their lives.
But you might say today, "Well, pastor, listen, I didn't really have a father figure in my life." Maybe you didn't have a Christian father in your life. Maybe you just didn't have a man in your life that would be that example in which you could follow. Maybe you'd be one that would say, "Well, you know what? My dad wasn't one that really went to church." Or maybe you're one that says, "You know what? I don't like Father's Day because my dad abandoned my family." Maybe you never had a father to begin with. Maybe you've been estranged from your father. Or maybe even today, you're mourning the loss of your father. You might say, "How can I pass on the pattern when I haven't yet even received it?"
Listen, you have a Heavenly Father that is provided to you the pattern in which you are to follow. David said, "Solomon, God has provided it all in writing." The word of God, John 1:1 says that "The word was with God," that, "The word was God." Jesus is the Father becoming flesh and dwelling among us. Whenever you don't know, what is the pattern? How should I build my life? What example do I have? You can look to the life of Jesus Christ, the example for your life to build your life upon.
You see, Psalm 68:5 declares that "God is a father to the fatherless." Psalm 27:10 says that "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me," so even when you didn't have the pattern or don't have the pattern in an earthly father, you can have the pattern to follow in your Heavenly Father, who is Jesus becoming flesh. Look at verse 19 one more time. It says in verse 19, "Every part of this plan was given to me in writing from the hand of the Lord." The Lord has inspired this pattern and has given it to us of what a man should be like. God is that Father. As long as you model your life after Jesus, you have the pattern of a father to follow.
Now, here's the pattern. Here's the plan. Here are the blueprints in which we are to build our life upon. That is the solid rock, all the ground is sinking sand, but on Christ the solid rock I stand. Jesus taught a parable in Matthew 5 of the wise man that builds his house, that is his family, his life upon the rock. That is the solid foundation of God's word. When we build our lives on God's word, listen, when storms come and problems happen and family is in turmoil, that we have that solid foundation when everything else would be swept away, we didn't build our life upon sin. We as the godly men that God has called us to be, have built our lives upon the word of God, and that's why it's so important for you, especially as men, to know God's word, to study God's word.
You see, a lot of people in churches today say, "The church is just so spiritually immature because many pastors in the pulpit aren't preaching God's word." I agree with that implicitly because many churches don't even teach God's word. Churches become a pep rally for Christians for them to get all excited and amped up and maybe a verse or two sprinkled in with a motivational speech and that's all it is. It's not based upon God's Word.
But listen, no matter how great and how deep a message on Sunday morning might be, it's not enough to sustain you throughout the week. I want to be in a church that doesn't just give me milk, that gives me the meat of God's word. That's great. You should, and that's necessary. Man, you need to be in the word of God. We need to know God's word so that we know the pattern, the blueprints that God would have us to build our lives upon so that we can model it for others.
Then it says, and we'll close with this, in verse 20, David continued to give this exhortation, and this is the same exhortation for you men here today, "Be strong and courageous and do the work. Don't be afraid or discouraged for the Lord God, my God is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you and He will see to it that all the work related to the temple of the Lord is finished correctly."
Here's the encouragement for us today. Be strong and courageous, and for us to do the work, we got to put the work in. Don't be afraid or discouraged. I think that's so important because when we hear this and we think about how we have been doing last week and the week before and the weeks prior, we think how we have been doing and how we've been failing and how we haven't maybe been accomplishing all and really been the pattern for our families to follow, maybe we've let our families down. It's easy to get discouraged, isn't it, and even be afraid of even trying. But we see, "Don't be afraid or be discouraged," and here's the reason why, "For the Lord God, my God is with you and He will not fail or forsake you and He will see to it that all the work related to building the temple of the Lord is finished correctly. The Lord will be with you and He will see to it that even your son's temple will be built correctly even when we fail."
Maybe today you realize, "You know what? I haven't been doing well." Here's the word of the Lord for you today, "Then start today. Start today." "Well, you know what? I think it's too late. My kids are grown. Maybe growing up, I wasn't that, and I didn't know this, and I didn't understand this, and I didn't understand the influence that a dad... Maybe my kids are in high school or college or out of the house or even married." Listen, it's never too late for you to start. "Well, I don't know. I haven't been the best example."
Well, God has a reputation of using people that were failures to do great things in their future. God used Saul to reach the world and to start churches and write two-thirds of the New Testament. Saul was a Christian killer. He had failed for many years in his life and God still used him. Peter, he failed. Peter had a temper and would often put his foot in his mouth. Noah, well, he got drunk. Jacob, well, he was a liar at a cheater. King David had an affair. Jonah ran from God. Gideon was insecure. Miriam, she was a gossiper. Martha, she was a worrier. Thomas, a doubter. Sarah, she was impatient. Elijah, he was depressed. Moses, well, he stuttered. Zacchaeus, well, he was short. Abraham, he was old. Lazarus, well, he was dead.
What's your excuse why God can't use you? It's never too late when you say, "God, my life is yours. I want to be the man or woman that you've created for me to be and I want to learn of you and I want to follow your example." When you think, "There's no way." Then you realize, "Yahweh." When the enemy tells you, "There's no way. There's no way for you," you can just say, "Yahweh." God can do it in your life. You be the pattern and you're going to see God see you through and God will see our kids through, too. Aren't you thankful for that today? I believe in a God who is faithful and will complete the work that He has begun in my home.
Roger Marsh: You're listening to Family Talk. I'm Roger Marsh and that was the conclusion of a two-part presentation given by Pastor Brenen Beeler. As Pastor Beeler discussed, our Heavenly Father provides the pattern for fathers to follow and to raise up their children well. Following a God-ordained example can positively change families and even our culture. If you didn't have a father figure in your life growing up, or you don't have one right now, remember our Lord and Savior is your true Father and He loves you. By the way, if you missed any part of today's program or you'd like to hear part one of this broadcast as well, you can listen to them again on our website. Just visit drjamesdobson.org/familytalk. That's drjamesdobson.org/familytalk.
As we've been discussing the importance of strong fathers here on Family Talk, remember that strong Christ-centered marriages are also very important as well. If you'd like to take Dr. James Dobson's 10-Day Marriage Series Challenge, you can sign up on our website at drjamesdobson.org. To join the challenge, all you have to do is visit our homepage and select the 10-Day Marriage Series. You'll see the icon in the upper right-hand corner of the page. Once you click on the Marriage Series image, you'll be directed to the 10-Day Marriage Series signup page, and then you can simply input your email address and then click on the signup button. From the day you do sign up for the next 10 days after that, you'll receive an email every day from Dr. Dobson on how to improve the spiritual strength of your marriage. Enjoy reading some words of wisdom from Dr. Dobson and discuss some questions with your spouse. You can also do the short exercises and recite the included prayer with each other as well.
We all have struggles, and whether you're trying to become a better father or mother or working to improve the Christ-centered foundation of your marriage, please know that our staff is here to pray with and for you. Reach out to us with your comments, your suggestions, and your prayer requests. Our customer care team is standing by. All you have to do is call 877-732-6825. Remember, you can also send us your request via the US Mail. Our ministry mailing address is the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, P.O. Box 39000, Colorado Springs, Colorado. The zip code, 800949. Once again, our ministry mailing address is the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, or JDFI for short, P.O. Box 39000, Colorado Springs, Colorado, the zip code, 800949. I'm Roger Marsh. Thanks so much for joining us, and until next time, may God continue to richly bless you and your family as you grow deeper in your relationship with Him.
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