The Legacy of a Godly Father

2Kings 4:1-7

I preached on this text about 3 and a half years ago or so, and the title of that message was “How God Restores Families”. As I reflected on where to teach from, God again brought me back to this text. And today, we are going to look at it from a different perspective. In particular, from the standpoint, “The Testimony of a Godly Father.” I was talking to my brother in law about 3 weeks ago, and he said something which stuck with me… “I want to do what really matters.” When our life is over, when your life is over, fathers…what will matter then?

That is my focus today…specifically, “What will testimony of our lives be?””What should the testimony of a Godly Father be?

2Kings 4:1-7 will give us insight into this question:

2 Kings 4:1–7 ESV

1 Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” 2 And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” 3 Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. 4 Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.” 5 So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. 6 When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing. 7 She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”

It may seem pointless to draw a fathers day message from a passage where the father has died. The character of the Father is not present to say or act or do anything. What is interesting here is that we are able to learn about this husband and father, not by what he observe from him, but rather what we observe from those close to him. This father leaves a testimony, and it is proven by the impact that it has on his family, the prophet, his children.

a testimony is evidence or proof of something. What testifies to Godly fatherhood?

John 8:13 ESV

13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.”

Proverbs 27:2 ESV

2 Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.

What testifies to Godly Fatherhood? What witness or evidence speaks on his behalf and will speak on our behalf?

Being a godly father is not about what we may say about ourselves, but the measure of our faithfulness as a father will be revealed by our impact on those around us. Fathers when you are gone, when you get to the end of your life..what be said about us? What will truly matter then?

When we are gone it won’t matter what type of father we thought we were, we won’t testify for ouselves. But others will.

As we read this passage, and what it is to be a father…I want you to notice the testimony and impact that this man had on his family and how it shaped thier life and future. We may not even know his name..but we know what type of man and father He was because of how his life impacted those around him.

This Fathers Day, I want to ask you..what is the testimony of Godly fatherhood? And how can I use this life to be the man God has called me to be. What sort of legacy will we leave?

The Testimony of a Godly Father will be determined by 3 types of witnesses

The Witness of Your Life

Our lives speak for us.

2 Kings 4:1 ESV

1 Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.”

“Sons of the Prophets”

I & II Kings: A Commentary Elisha’s Efforts to Save the Sons of the Widow and the Shunammite Woman (2 Kings 4:1–37)

indicates a professional designation that would entail some form of income

Nothing else is mentioned about this school of prophets, though it is clear they lived together in some kind of community and were known as sons of the prophets who worshiped the Lord.

These groups of men were likely leaders among those 7,000 Israelites who had not bowed down to Baal, as God had told Elijah (1 Kings 19:18). There were at least three schools or communities of these prophets and possibly more, consisting of men who were devoted to God and served Him. They followed the teachings of Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha during the time of the prophets and were known as their “students.”

Committed to God

Provided for his family

“Feared the Lord”

It means that He was serious about his faith. And put his own life at risk and danger to be approved by God.

He feared God more than he did the danger or circumstances around him.

1Kings 18:4-5

1 Kings 18:4–5 ESV

4 and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.) 5 And Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys. Perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive, and not lose some of the animals.”

Put his own life at risk for God’s sake

Pleasing God was of first priority

Your life speaks for you! The question is what does it say?

What are you living for? What are you pouring yourself out for?

He feared the Lord—>Looking at your life what do you fear?

Tim Keller states counterfeit Gods:

Then he looks more closely at the first four categories:

1. If your life is pourred out for POWER (success, winning, influence)…

Your greatest fear: Humiliation/failure

Your problem emotion: Anger

2. If your life is poured out for APPROVAL (affirmation, love, relationships)…

Your greatest fear: Rejection/ People not iiking us

Your problem emotion: Cowardice

3. If you pour yourself out for a comfortable life (privacy, lack of stress, freedom)…

Your greatest fear: Stress, Discomfort

Your problem emotion: Boredom

4. If you pour yourself out maintain CONTROL (self-discipline, certainty, standards)…

Your greatest fear: Uncertainty, not having the ansers

Your problem emotion: Worry

It is impossible to fear God and also fear failure or rejection or uncertainty or stress..because following God imples that you will not have “power” in the way the world says, you will be rejected, you will have uncertainty, you will have discomfort

And we can say what we want Fathers, but our life for better or worse speaks for us!

He poured himself out for God, and His greatest fear was God.

What does your life testify about you?

Jim Elliot

In the fall of 1949the first gathering of the Evangelical Theological Society convened, as sixty Bible and theology professors met in Cincinnati to hear an address by Carl Henry, who had published The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism just two years earlier. It was during this time—October 28, 1949, to be exact—that Jim Elliot penned a journal entry:

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.

A few months later, in 1950, a former missionary to Ecuador told Elliot about the Huaorani (or “Auca”) Indians, a small and fierce unreached people in the jungle. Elliot sensed a call from the Lord to reach this people for Christ.

In 1952, Jim and his friend Pete Fleming set sail for Guayaquil as missionaries, arriving in February. For six months they stayed in Quito (the capital of Ecuador) in order to learn Spanish, before moving deep into jungle, where they lived at Shandia, a mission station.

On January 29, 1953, Jim Elliot proposed to Elisabeth Howard on her 21st birthday, and they were married on October 8 in a civil ceremony in Quito on Jim’s 26th birthday. Their daughter Valerie was born on February 27, 1955.

In the fall of 1955, the missionaries made initial contact with the Huaorani. Nate Saint was able to maneuver his plane in tight circles while lowering a bucket from a rope containing gifts like buttons and rock salt, with more gifts delivered over the next several weeks. Later the missionaries used a loudspeaker to shout simple Huaorani phrases they had learned from a young Huaorani girl who had left the society and befriended Nate Saint’s sister, Rachel. The Huaorani began to reciprocate with gifts of their own.

January 2, 1956, was the day that 29-year-old Jim Elliot had waited for most of his life. He jumped out of bed, dressed as quickly as he could, and got ready for the short flight over the thick Ecuador (Eck-wah-door) jungle. Almost three years of jungle ministry and many hours of planning and praying had led Jim to this day. Within hours, he and four other missionaries would be setting up camp in the territory of a dangerous and uncivilized Indian tribe known then as the Aucas (Ow-cuz), known now as the Waodani (Wah-o-dah-nee). The Aucas had killed all outsiders ever caught in their area. Even though it was dangerous, Jim Elliot had no doubt God wanted him to tell the Aucas about Jesus.

The missionaries waited for other Aucas to return for the next two days. Finally, two Auca women walked out of the jungle on day six. Jim and Pete excitedly jumped in the river and waded over to them. As they got closer, these women did not appear friendly. Jim and Pete almost immediately heard a terrifying cry behind them. As they turned they saw a group of Auca warriors with their spears raised, ready to throw. Jim Elliot reached for the gun in his pocket. He had to decide instantly if he should use it. But he knew he couldn't. Each of the missionaries had promised they would not kill an Auca who did not know Jesus to save himself from being killed. Within seconds, the Auca warriors threw their spears, killing all the missionaries: Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Nate Saint, Pete Fleming and Jim Elliot.

Jim Elliot died that day. He feared God more than he did the danger before him. Jim Elliot did not waste his life.

What he lived and died for speaks for him. I didn’t know Him personally, but what I do know, through the evidence of his life and what He poured it out for…He was a godly husband and father. And that he feared God. If you haven’t read about Jim Elliot you may not know the impact that His life and testimony has had on missions. You may not know the books written about Him, and the people he has impacted. You see, Jim Elliots life testifies for Him.

What are you willing to live for? What are you willing to die for? Be honest! Whatever we think we may live for, our lives will prove it. Our lives will reveal.

So your life is the first witness of A Godly Father’s Testimony. Our life speaks for us. And it speaks louder than we do.

But not only is it the witness of our life…but also the second witness will be the witness of those you love.

The Witness of Those You Love

“You Know”- It was seen within and without of the family

This life was testified to by his family, children, and the prophet himself

Family

What does your wife and children see?

You can look one thing to others, but your familly knows!

Can your wife say “My husband fears the Lord”

Can your children say, “My dad fears the Lord”

Fathers—> Your wife and children know what you are truly concerned about.

Berea sees one thing, but the truth is…when I die, the greatest identifier of the type of man I am will be from my wife and children. What did they see?

The test for Fathers must be, not simply what my church says or sees, or what my coworkers say or see..but what does my family see! That is where your ministry begins!

We must recognize the connection between being a good Father and being a good husband.

If you can’t lead your wife, Fathers, we can not expect to lead anyone else. How can we expect to be a good father without being a good husband? This woman knew what type of man her husband was, and his life and death proved it.

Fathers we reproduce who we are! Not what we say we are…but who we are!

If you are truly trusting and fear God, your wife should also be growing in thier fear of God.

Your children see it too! And I truly believe, our children do not fear God more because, regardless of what we say, we don’t. Because its not about what we say, but the witness of our life speaks something different.

When I was a kid....I loved my dad, and so I started to love all the things he did. Steelers football, Duke basketball, He was a doctor (and I saw what He gave to it)…and so I wanted to be that. He worked and worked..and when I saw the way he viewed money, I did too. But when he would get angry…I found myself struggline with anger. When He was lost and didn’t believe God,..I didn’t either. This isn’t always the case, but we have to recognize, Fathers we reproduce what we are. ..and we must recognize our families are a reflection of our leadership for better or worse.

If your son or daughter aspired to be like you, would they also aspire to be like Jesus? If Lord willing I have children one day, I hope that they see God in me, so when they say, “I want to be like dad…they can’t help but say, I want to be like Jesus…because Dad is like Jesus.”

His family could testify to the type of man He was. They knew!

Elisabeth Elliot

‘We grew up with the understanding that the scriptures were top priority... we had bible reading and prayer at the end of dinner every night as we sat around the table, and up until the age of, I suppose, seven or eight, each of us children was put to bed by one of our parents and prayed with, and sometimes we had the bible read to us again. so we heard the bible read aloud at least twice a day, sometimes three times a day.

‘And the other very very powerful influence in our lives, I'm sure was the fact that my father got up himself between 4:30 and 5:00 in the morning in order to have time alone with the Lord.

And when we came to breakfast, we knew that we had been prayed for... meaning my father was in his study for those hours before breakfast with his prayer lists and his notebooks and his bible and down on his knees praying for us.’

Elisabeth reckoned she herself came to faith at around the age of five. This was followed by a definite commitment to Christ when she was twelve: “I think I realised that if Jesus was my saviour, he also had to be my Lord, so I then committed my life and said, ‘Lord, I want you to do anything you want with me.’”

We can surmise from this that even at this tender age Elisabeth realised she had a calling to the mission field. She studied classical Greek at Wheaton college, Illinois, believing that it was the best tool to help her with her desire to translate the New Testament into a yet-unreached language.

It was at Wheaton where she met Jim Elliot. Before their marriage they both went individually to Ecuador to work with the Quechua Indians; the two married in 1953 in the city of Quito, Ecuador.

Elisabeth said that she had a premonition that Jim’s mission might end in his death, explaining, “I often thought I was going to lose my husband.” In fact, just before he left for his fateful mission to the Aucas they had talked about what she would do if Jim should not return.

So as they said what turned out to be their last goodbyes in January 1956, her mind was a filled with thoughts as to whether that would be the last time she saw him alive.

Jim and four other Christian missionaries Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed Mccully and Peter Fleming – were speared to death in the jungles of Ecuador. Their killers were Huaorani Indians, the same group that Elisabeth had been warned about earlier.

After Jim’s death, Elisabeth, together with Rachel saint, the sister of another of those killed, continued her work among the Quechua at a site which was several days by trail from Auca territory. Jim's wife and daughter went to live with the Aucas after Jim was killed.

Despite what had happened to their men, Elisabeth and Rachel were still determined to reach the killers with the gospel. At the time, their only link with Auca culture came when they met Dayuma, a young woman who had fled the tribe some years before to live with white missionaries. Dayuma, who was by then a believing Christian, helped them with the Auca language.

In November 1957 came a breakthrough. Elisabeth heard that two more Auca women had left their tribe. She hurried to the neighbouring settlement where the women – Mintaka and Minkamu – were, and spent the next ten months with them, seeking to learn more of the Auca language and culture.

Eventually the two Auca women – together with Dayuma – decided to return to their native tribe, leaving Elisabeth and Rachel wondering what the fate of the three women might be when they arrived home.

However, after three weeks the women returned to the mission compound bringing along seven other Aucas, plus a invitation to the missionaries to visit the tribe!

'As long as this is what the Lord requires of me, then all else is irrelevant' Elisabeth Elliot

Elisabeth and Rachel lost no time in taking up this unprecedented offer. However, Elisabeth admitted that taking her three-year-old daughter, Valerie, along strapped to her back was ‘the biggest test of faith ever’.

As well as the usual dangers found in jungle terrain, she had to face the possibility that the Aucas might choose to kill her and carry off the youngster.

In a later interview she said that, although she appreciated the kind warnings of fellow Christians, she felt that ‘as long as this is what the Lord requires of me, then all else is irrelevant’.

The journey to the Auca village took two-and-a-half days by canoe and trail paths. Ironically, the party arrived on the afternoon of 8 October 1958, Jim’s birthday and the day which would have been the couple's fifth wedding anniversary.

When the missionaries reached a clearing in the jungle, there stood a welcoming party of three Aucas.

And while no-one would claim the missionaries didn’t make mistakes along the way, the gospel they preached resulted in a marked decline in violence among tribe members, together with numerous conversions to Christianity and the growth of the local church.

Godly Leadership

It was something not even family knew. But the prophet of God knew!

The question is not just what does my family say..but what will my church say? And not everyone in the church building, because not everyone in the building may be following God themselves. But those in the church body who know me and truly love and serve God, what will they say?

Can those who are serving God boldly, say I was too? Can those who are faithfully serving, see that in me too.

The truth is, not everyone’s opinion is the same, but men, who is a Godly leader you look up to? And will you allow them to speak into your life?

Fathers if you do not have godly leadership in your life that can speak into your life, and speak not just to my work ethic, but to my service and commitment to Jesus…then we have to open ourselves to that. And seek it!

What do they see? Are we open to hearing what they say?

“Sons of prophet” was commited to learning and being accountable to spiritual guidance.

We long to hear Jesus say, “Well done my good and faithful servant, don’t we” But the question is..is there is no godly leader, mentor, person in my life that can speak when I’m gone and say, “They were a faithful servant of Jesus” do we have confidence Jesus will?

Can we expect Jesus to say well done good and faithful serving if no one in the church can say that about me. Its not about condemnation..its about asking hard questions. What will the testimony of life be?

God

Ultimately

Fathers…your children may not always like you, your spouse may not always be happy with you..but they should stil be able to see and say, “They feared God. With their whole life. They weren’t playing”

Ron Pontier—>Andrea Pontier

The Witness of What You Leave

The things that you are leave with your children, also attest to the types of fathers we are.

2 Kings 4:2 ESV

2 And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.”

“Jar of Oil”- This was a valuable resource

The point here is not to condemn the prophet because he was in debt, or because He had nothing else.

To be a prophet, you relied on God’s provision!

1 Kings 18:4 ESV

4 and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.)

1 Kings 17:1–4 ESV

1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” 2 And the word of the Lord came to him: 3 “Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 4 You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

The point wasn’t to say, “this is all the man had.”. But to point out his life communicated, “God was all I need”.

Money is important. It is a responsibility of every father to provide. To work. But the prophet knew it wasn’t money that would save His family but only God can.

“A Lifestyle of Dependence on God”- She had seen God deliver before, provide for them, and she knew God would still provide.

These prophets weren’t rich from a material standpoint..but they were provided for!

And so, what He left wasn’t about the oil, but it was about the example. If he wanted to leave his family with more stuff he certainly would not have been a prophet.

But he did leave them with something. He left them with a lifestyle of dependence on God, so that they knew where to turn when it God hard.

Leave your children with something that won’t leave them!

Luke 16:9 ESV

9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

Money will fail, so use it in such a way that you may be recieved into eternal dwellings.

Luke: An Introduction and Commentary 1. The Unjust Steward (16:1–9)

Jesus’ followers must use their money for their spiritual purposes just as wisely as the children of this world do for their material aims. As our goal is ‘treasure in heaven’, we should use money for purposes such as almsgiving

His life was such that he clearly had his eye on the kingdom of God!

Jim Elliot- He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Because He lived a life of faith and dependence himself, he could trust God with his wife and children. And the mother could trust God for them as well!

Fathers, the life you live reveals what you trust in, and what you trust in, for better or worse…your children will learn to trust in.

It isn’t so much about the money we have..because God can and will provide, and wealth is not bad in of itself.

But do our lifestyles communicate our children, trust and dependence.

Fathers, work hard, but work harder at discipling your children.

Fathers work hard to feed your family, but work harder to feed them the truth and word of God.

Does your life communicate a dependence on God?

Serve with your family and children, do something hard together, and pray together and watch God provide together.

Children need to grow up in a home where they know..we are depending on God. Tell your kids, lets bake some cookies and go next door to tell them about Jesus…I’m nervous, but God will take care of me.

Ask your children to pray about a ministry that you as a family can serve or get involved in..and everyone sacrifice and watch God provide.

Do family devotions.

Its not just about leaving them a scripture…or telling them right from wrong.

Its about showing them, through your life…that you depend on God.

Jesus says, come and follow me. You should be able to look at your children and say, follow me as I follow God.

Don’t expect your children to be any closer to God or devoted than you are. They obviously can be, God can still work in them. But we must be commited

What will you leave them? What are you leaving them with?

Leave them with a lifestyle of prayerful dependence on God!

Alex and Ethan

Good morning prayer partners! Please pray for the Palacio Alvarez family today. We recently sent them out to join a new team living full-time in the jungle getting the gospel out further to unreached peoples.

They are experiencing culture shock on many levels - housing, heat, mosquitos, etc. But one area they need special prayer is for their sweet twin kids. They are struggling adapting to their new school and the jungle in general. Pray for protection from a dark spiritual world around them and peace in the midst of this significant transition.

Pray for Juan and Vivi to have grace and compassion on their kids during this time and to be wise in their ministry/family balance. Pray that the Holy Spirit would go before them as they share God's Word and that many would turn to Jesus.

Live with that intention!

What the Testimony of a Godly Father Does:

2Kings 4:3-7

2 Kings 4:3–7 ESV

3 Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. 4 Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.” 5 So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. 6 When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing. 7 She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”

The Testimony of a Godly Father, which is witnessed by our life, those we love, and what we leave, lasts after we are gone.

Your faithfulness Fathers can impact generations! His life of faith and dependence on God was still being lived out by his family!

Slide: To this day…my great grandpa Clarence shapes my life.

Ecclesiastes 7:1 ESV

1 A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth.

Because His life was a witness to God, and he lived in fear of God…they knew to turn to God.

Grandma died..and grandma had alzeimers->funeral

Valerie Elliot Shepherd

She has spent over 45 years being a pastor’s wife, raising 8 children, homeschooling, and teaching Bible studies. They now have 8 grandchildren, and their adult children now live from California to the UK.

Valerie and Walter’s ministry has been one of hospitality, leading prayer meetings, and learning to live in God’s grace with joy.  She has shared some of the radio ministry, called “Gateway to Joy,” with her mother, on Back to the Bible Broadcasting Network.

Having always had the desire to be missionaries, she moved with her husband and 3 of their children to Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2005. They stayed until June 2008. Because of health reasons, they decided to stay in the States, and God moved them into a different American mission field. In 2008 they moved to Southport, NC where they planted Christ Coastal Church until Walt retired in August of 2018. They now live in Long Beach, MS, where Walt’s grandparents and mother lived most of their lives.

Fathers..read throughout the bible the impact that faithful and commited men had on thier families. For generations! If you think about it, we are here because of faitful Fathers and mothers before us.

The Testimony of a Godly Father turns a home into a place of healing!

Notice, Elisha does not say go to the temple. He says go home and close the door behind you!

They trusted God..and he says close the door behind you. It was just them. Just thier family. Personal! They could trust God to work in thier home and in thier family…because a fear of God was already at home and in their family!

This wasn’t the first time they had church as a family. This wasn’t the first time they had church at home.

Your families healing begins when your home is a place of worship and trust!

God desires to restore families by restoring homes to places of worship

The wellbeing of your family is not firstly about how often you bring them to a church building, its about what happens at home! Fathers your home should be a place your children can learn about God, experience the love of God, and find healing in the presence of God.

Church should not be the only time they hear a devotion during the week. Church should not be the only time we pray together. The healing you are looking for, can start at church, but lasting transformation happens when our homes are places of worship and trust. it is likely going to happen when you grab your children, and teach them the word of God, worship together…show them that God is the God of our home.

God desires to restore families by restoring homes to places of worship

Marriage- Worship in the bathroom

A Godly fathers testimony can turn a living room into a church.

Singing and worshipping (the lighthouse)- He had lost his mind, but he hadn’t lost his tesimony! A Godly testimony can last even your mind doesn’t. Even if your health doesn’t. Even if your life is over.

A Godly father can help you see God in your house.

A Godly father turns a home into a place of healing. And even when He’s gone, there is still healing because there is still God. This family still had God!

You see, a hurting child and hurting wife should be able to run to their husband and find healing. Not that you are the healer, but you point your family to the healer.

A Godly father can grab thier son or daughter, pray over them..and help them see God in thier struggles.

We need Godly fathers. If your wife is anxious or nervous..pray with them. Cover them.

If your children are struggling…speak the word of God into thier life.

A Godly father should be able to teach their family that they can come home and find peace.

Thats why I would be careful about what you do and don’t do in your house. A home should be a place sensitive to the presence of God.

God desires to restore families by restoring homes to places of worship

And Because he lived a life of dependence and faith..they had faith. Because he showed them what was valuable, they knew that it wasn’t the oil that was most valuable, but God.

The Testimony of a Godly Father leaves a legacy of empty vessel's, lives poured out for God and filled by God

They weren’t afraid to empty out some vessel's, they weren’t afraid to trust God.

A Godly Father’s testimony helps teaches their children pour out to God all that have!

A Godly Fathers’ Testimony points their children to the true Good Father…who can truly save them.

About 2 weeks ago, a friend of mine who doesn’t have a home, asked me for a favor. She stays in a tent, and one of her problems is having water. Its inconvenient for her to walk and get water everytime she need it,,and now she stays far away from a place to get water. So she called me and said RJ, i have saved my water bottles…hers and her friends who also don’t have a home..and she said, is there any way you can take these empty bottles and fill them up for me. She said, I have 40-50 is that…I said sure, however many you got. So I went by and got her empty bottles…put them into the back of my car. These bottles looked like garbage really, dirty, all kinds of containers, but I brought them in the house, and one by one filled them up for her. Some of the bottles were old laundry detergent containers, old chemical containers, different containers..but when she had emptied them, she just wanted to get them filled with water. You see she needed water not just to drink, but to wash her clothes, to wash her hands, to clean herself, to rinse dishes, to bath..and that was a vital resource she needed. So one by one, I filled those up at the house and brought them to her. Dirty bottles, filled with clean water all of a sudden turns trash into treasure.

She held on to these empty bottles because she knew I had water at my house and she had faith I would fill them. I had access to something in my house she needed, and didn’t have access to. She didn’t have access to my house, but she had access to me.

She trusted that I could provide what she needed, SHe had faith that I would fill what was empty,

Do you know that God can provide what you need? Do you trust God to fill what is empty?

The word will tell you that a life poured out for God is trash, no value. The word will tell you to that trusting God is no good. But you are not trash. And pouring your life out for God is not a waste.

The only thing is, you have to know who to call on to fill you, so you can be cleaned, washed, made new.

You see Jesus gives us access to something we didn’t have access to. Jesus invites us into his own home..He pours out his mercy and blood upon us. That doesn’t just clean us from dirt like this water does..but washes our sin and shame.

You may look at this as trash. But its not trash. Its just empty, and because of her faith, I’ll fill up every one.

My prayer is that when we die Fathers, our lives will look like this. Empty. poured out. And I pray that we live pouring ourselves out to Jesus, who poured himself out for us…and we keep coming back to Him, who fills us with his new mercies every day. That we pour ourself out for Him and we have faith knowing that He will keep filling us up.

Philippians 2:5-11

Philippians 2:5–11 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Our lives fathers isn’t measure by what we make or keep or save or do…its measured by our faith and trust in what Jeuss has done…and how much we pour out in faith for God.

I can keep pouring my life out because I know I can call Jesus and he will fill me up every time!

My prayer is that my family, generation after gernation would look like this…lifes emptied out for God. Knowing God will keep pouring and pouring into us.

When you pour youself out Fathers, you teach your family to. And when God fills you back up again, they can see..God will fill me up to.

Jesus invites us into his home, gives us access to His life and blood which washes us clean…that pays not aphysical debt..but a spiritual one. Invite Jesus into your home fathers.

So that your life, your loved ones, what you leave will witness to our Fatherhood. And our family can be made free through the blood of Jesus poured out upon all those who will call upon Him, emptied out…relying on Him.

Jim Elliot- He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.