This sermon Many Teachers, Few Fathers is given by Pastor Maurice Hicks Sr. at Made Whole Ministries in Jacksonville, FL on 6/21/2015.

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6 thoughts on “Many Teachers, Few Fathers – 6/21/2015”

  1. Many Teachers
    Few Fathers
    6/21/2015
    I said, “ Well, I must have fallen asleep. Isn’t that sweet? Alexis bought me a pillow and a blanket so I can sleep. “ Yeah, so they could run and tear up the house.
    But the bottom line is that I wasn’t excellent at being a father until I became a father and then I found out it was a little bit different. I could have written a book. Everytime I used to come home and see my niece and nephew. That boy would be so bad. I would tell my nephew,” Boy, come over here.” Then I would straighten him out and he’d straighten up, but then when I become a father it was a little bit different. It’s easy to do it, but when you actually get down to practicality it’s different.
    Then it’s a whole different ballgame. But having children is a blessing. Jesus told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. So he wanted them to replenish the earth and be fruitful and multiply. So it’s good to have children and be fathers to them. Now one thing about a Jewish boy, when he changed from a boy to a man, the Jews had a way of recognizing and validating that person. He would go to the bar mitzvah. At the bar mitzvah, all the Jewish men and the elders would be there and they would welcome him into the world and say that he was no longer a child. He put down foolish things and started becoming a man. They would start training him on how to be a man. Before Jesus started His public ministry, He was baptized by John the Baptist. John said.” I need Jesus to baptize me.” But Jesus had to fulfill scripture, so Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus was water baptized. After He was baptized He got confirmation from His Father. . Read Matthew 3:16-17.
    Matthew 3:16-17 KJV
    16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
    17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
    Isn’t that something? The devil heard that himself. The devil had enough nerve to say, “ If you be the Son of God, prove it” when he started trying to tempt Jesus. He knew who Jesus was. God the Father confirmed Jesus before He started His ministry. God knew that man needed to be confirmed by another man. Men need to be confirmed by some authority figure. They really need that. So they can be launched out.

  2. Just about every pastor or apostle who has a big megachurch, they try to say,” You’re my son.” Well guess what? I’m going to show you from scripture that even though they might be a teacher, they not necessarily your father. A lot of times people will try that to manipulate you like they’ve got trophies on a shelf. Well, it takes more than just teaching somebody to become a father to them. It takes sweat equity to be a father. Let’s go to 1 Corinthians 4:15
    This is a scripture that a lot of pastor or church leaders will try to use say that you’re their son. Basically, they try to jerk authority over you.
    1 Corinthians 4:15 KJV
    15 For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
    The Apostle Paul Himself, even though he wrote 2/3 of the New Testament, there was only three men that he called his sons. He called Timothy, Titus, and Paul had something to do with their conversion to Christ. He said,” You have thousands of teachers or people that are spiritual leaders, to teach you about Christ, but you only have one spiritual father. “ He said,” I’m your father because I taught the gospel to you.” Do you know what a spiritual father does? He illuminates his son and he brings him to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. He prays for him for Christ to be formed in him. That’s what a spiritual father does. It takes sweat equity.
    Jesus is the master and He is the head of the church, but when He walked the earth, He only had 12 disciples. He poured into their lives for 3 1/2 years while he walked on this earth. He only had 3 people out of that 12 that were in his inner circle. Peter, James, and John. Anytime He did any miraculous miracle, like healing, He would usually call out all of the unbelievers, but would always have Peter, James, and John with him. Why did He have Peter, James, and John? Because they loved Him more than the other disciples. It wasn’t that Jesus love any other person more than the other, but Jesus said,” If you hunger and thirst, in the beatitudes, after righteousness, you shall be filled.”
    It doesn’t mean that Jesus is playing favorites. It means that they want Jesus more than they want anything else. That’s how they got close to Jesus. Anytime Jesus did things, he trained those three people. A lot of people say that they were Jesus camp. Peter, James, and John. Anytime He did any tremendous miracle, they were there on the scene. And He only poured into twelve men. Jesus being the Son of God, couldn’t father more than twelve men. For somebody, just because they’ve got a radio ministry, they’re heard all over the world and everything, they’ve got a teaching ministry, and just because you read their tapes, teachings, and podcasts, that doesn’t mean that person is your spiritual father. In order to be a father, you have to have a relationship.

  3. You’ve got to pour time into that person. If you’re not willing to mentor that person, and pour time into them, then that isn’t your spiritual father. That’s scripture has been abused by a lot of people. There are many needy people that want to have a father. So, everybody that is popular or doing something good, wants to attach themselves to you. They say,” Hey, I want to give you $5,000 to come to my church. I’ll pay for your hotel and your rental car. You’re my son in the faith.”
    Not wanting to discredit them, you’re not going to say,” Oh no. You’re not my father.” Once you leave if that guy doesn’t keep calling you and mentoring you, and speaking into your life, and asking,” How are you doing, son?”, then he’s not your spiritual father. So that scripture has been abused. It’s made merchandise in the Body of Christ.
    I know you have the wisdom of God. You know how God leads us? Through our spirit. The bible says that the spirit of man is the account of the Lord. So the Holy Spirit leads us through our inward witness. Through our Holy Spirit. So, if somebody tells you something that doesn’t line up with the word of God, or it doesn’t agree with that God has told you, do you condemn the messenger? No, but you just don’t receive it.
    Remember the Berean Christians? In Acts the 17th chapter. It said that they received the word. They were more noble that those from Thessalonica, because they received the word with gladness. But they went home and examined the scriptures to see if it was so. Then when it was so, they received it into their spirit. We have to use the same wisdom that they did.
    If someone says something that doesn’t line up with the word of God and there is no confirmation, then you don’t have to receive it. You still love the person.
    It takes work to be a father. Remember when we talked about authority last week? We talked about how to be a father, there has to be training. You have to train. Training is not just giving out a message, giving out a word, and sending somebody a teaching tape. You may have a thousand teachers, but you have not many fathers. So a father pours into your life, until Christ be made real unto you. That’s what the Apostle Paul did to his sons in the faith. To Titus, to Timothy, to Onesimus.
    But every man needs to be affirmed. He’s going to be affirmed by some authority figure. Even if he doesn’t have a natural father. When that relationship happens, it’s beautiful. You don’t have to make it happen. It’s something that just happens by the grace of God and the mercy of God. All of a sudden your hearts are knit together like Johnathan and David was. But it’s real. It’s not made up. It’s not saying that you made some contract. It’s not saying that if you come into the city and don’t call me, then I rebuke you because I’m your spiritual father. And you can’t do nothing without coming to me first. That’s foolishness. If it happens, it’s automatic. It’s not made up. It’s something that the Spirit of God does.

  4. Bishop Martin and Pastor John Henderson have the right say that they’re my spiritual father. They have a relationship with me. They care about me. They never made merchandise out of me even though they had the right to do it. They never made merchandise out of me. They never made personal gain because of our relationship. So I know they love me. That’s how a father does. A father loves his son. And he’ll only want what is best for his son. He’ll train up his son.
    In order for training to happen, there are certain requirements that are need to be made before training actually happens. First of all, there’s got to be exposure.
    I went deep-sea fishing a couple of weeks ago, because Junior set it up for me. It really surprised me. It was a really awesome birthday gift. Thank you, son. If I sat on that boat and watched everybody fish, and told D, to throw his line out there, and when he gets a big fish, call the people over there to help you hook, and that’s how you fish, he’s not going to learn by that.
    You know what he’s going to learn by. I’ve got to take him out on a boat and let him put hands to it and let him learn it. Then when he learns it, he’s got it. Unless he gets sweat and salt water on his glasses, saltwater in his eyes, a little sweat because the sun’s on him, he’s not going to learn how to deep-sea fish. So I’ve got to take him, and I have to spend time with him to make sure he’s got it. Then it’s got to be repetition. Just because he’s done it one time, doesn’t mean that he’s got it. It’s got to be repetition.
    Then I’ve got to take him again. I’ve got to train him. Then I can say that I taught D how to deep-sea fish. I can’t say,” D, here’s a book on deep-sea fishing. Now I’m your spiritual father. Now teach some other people how to deep-sea fish.” If you say,” My spiritual father taught me how to fish, now I’m going to quit my job, I’m going to go be a fisher. “ You’ll come back many days hungry. Nobody really put sweat equity into it and took the time to actually teach you how to fish.
    There’s got to be repetition, comprehension, and revelation. Do you know what revelation comes from? It comes from when they put their heart into it and they have a passion about it. God doesn’t reveal things to people that don’t hunger for it. You’ve got to have a vision. The vision has to come from God. When you get the vision from God, you’ve got to incorporate that vision as your own. You’ve got to be passionate about it. Then, you’ll be able to see stuff that other people can’t see. In a vision, if you can’t see it, you can’t make it come to past.
    That’s why Habakkuk said ‘write the vision and make it plain’. If you can’t write the vision and see the vision, it won’t come to past. Revelation comes from not just scratching at the surface. When you’re digging deep, that’s when you’ll find revelation. It’s like logos and rhema.
    Read Habakkuk 2:2 KJV
    Before you just take off running, you’ve got know why you’re running, right? Some people go around church, and they run around shouting because they see somebody else doing it. They don’t know why they’re doing it. You’ve got to have a revelation about why you’re running. One person said,” You can’t tell it like I can tell it, what the Lord has done for me.” I know what God has done for me. I know why I’m running around in church because I know what he delivered me from. But some people just run around church because they see everybody and they don’t have a clue why they’re running. There’s nothing wrong with running and everything, and getting caught in the spirit, but the thing is, you’ve got to know why you’re running. So the vision has got to be written down, so that those why read might be able to run with it. Revelation comes with people who have vision and insight from God.
    Then once you get the vision, will the vision ever come to past if you don’t act on it? No. You’ve got to act on it. So all those steps are required for somebody to be trained. A father puts his time and his energy into training his son. I’ve trained Junior as much as I can. Even now I train him, but you know what? He has to allow me to speak into his life. There’s a song from the seventies about a man whose son didn’t have time for him. It says’ cats in the cradle/ silver spoon/when you coming home son/I don’t know when/we’ll have a good time again/ we’ll have a good time then’. So his son didn’t have time for him. So his father said,” When are you coming home? When are we going to get together?” He said,” I don’t know. We’re going to get together soon.” He didn’t have time for his father. He didn’t allow his father to speak into his life because when he was young and he needed his father, his father was too busy to spend any time. So they didn’t have any relationship. Even though he was his natural, biological father. The story went on to be that he never had a relationship with his father and the father never had a relationship with his children.

  5. You have to authorize somebody to speak into your life. Someone can be your spiritual father, but unless you authorize your spiritual father to be in your life, they will never be able to become a spiritual father to you. So thank God for fathers and real daddies.
    All you have to do to become a father, is to have the sperm and the egg come together. Does that make you a father? No. Because, guess what? That baby is going to be crying. That baby is going to need somebody to teach them. That baby is going to need somebody to train him.
    Who do we say is responsible for training the children? The mom? The grandma? The granddaddy? The father. So when Eli’s boys were acting up in the church, God didn’t know on the door and say,” Mrs. Eli, I want to talk to you. You’re sons are acting a fool. “ No. Who did he come to? Who did God come to?
    Did God go to the youth pastor or to the women that the youth pastor was laying with? No. He gave correction to the dad. The dad was responsible for correcting his son. Eli did lip service to them, but there was no follow up. There was no training. Training doesn’t take place unless you can follow up and see that the teaching that you have imparted into someone, they can actually do it themselves and that they can walk in it.
    If they can’t walk in it, you haven’t trained them. You just gave them lip service. You’ve just patted them on the head and said, be warm and be filled because you didn’t give them anything to eat. It’s good to have a father. It’s a tremendous thing to be a father. I can say one thing about my dad. Anybody that knows my dad knows that I love my dad. You know why I love my dad? Because he had a relationship with me. He was busy. He worked all the time. If he had a spare moment, he was working on a car trying to make some money so we could have bacon, eggs, and grits on the table. But whatever it meant, we never went hungry. He was in the army. He made a good salary in the army. He only got paid once a month.
    We had to live the rest of the month. My dad always worked two or three jobs to make sure that we had it. But when my dad said,” I’m going to take you boys fishing,” he didn’t care who knocked on the door and said they needed their car fixed. He said,” I told my boys I’m going to take them fishing so I’ll see you when I get back.” But he didn’t renege on that. He had a relationship with him. Because of that, I would respect my dad. He was my role model. He was my hero. I tried to be like him. I wanted to be a mechanic when I came and joined the army. They wanted me to be a mechanic, but after I took my test, he said,” Well, you scored high in secretarial, clerical, you scored high in electronics.” The recruiter told me, “ You really need to be in electronics.” I went back and talked to my dad. My dad said, “Boy, don’t be a mechanic.” So I followed my dad. I took his advice. But I really wanted to be a mechanic like my dad. But he had impact on me. He could speak into my life because he had relationship with me. He spent time with me. He trained me and developed me. You’re not going to have many fathers. It’s almost an exaggeration. It says you may have a thousand teachers. You’re not going to have a thousand teachers. It’s almost facetious.

  6. Apostle Paul encouraged his sons in the faith. When he couldn’t go himself, he sent them. That’s what a spiritual father does. He trusts his son. Because he taught his son. He knows his son is not going to make merchandise of the people.
    But Paul said,” My time is at hand and there will be grievous wolves that will devour you. They don’t have your interest like I do.” He warned them. He could send Timothy. He could send Titus. He knew that they wouldn’t make merchandise of the people and they would love the people just like he did. He birthed them. He became their spiritual father because he poured into their heart and trained them. He took them where he wanted to go on the missionary journey. They followed him. He trained them. He discipled them. Jesus only had 12 disciples. Three of them were in his camp.
    You have not many fathers. Even if you don’t have a natural father, do you know that God can actually become your father and then he’ll put flesh to it and cause Godly men that will pour into your heart and not make merchandise out of you, to love you and teach you, and discipline you, and train you?
    It’s not like you’re sitting on the throne next to Jesus, your Spiritual Father, and your down here sitting down grumbling in the dirt. No. You have a relationship. There’s correction at both ends. A lot of times people say,” Touch not mine anointed. Do my prophets no harm.” Do you know what that is? That’s a smokescreen for “I don’t need correction”. A lot of times people that are bishops will do stuff that will make merchandise out of people. But then all of a sudden, you can’t say anything to the bishop because you’re out of order. You’ve got the Jezebel spirit. That’s just a smokescreen for “I don’t need correction”. If you’re in relationship, you can talk to somebody. You can even correct them.
    Do you know what a son does? A son will not expose his father’s vulnerabilities and nakedness before the people. He will not bring shame on his father. Remember Noah got drunk, and one of the sons, instead of covering his father’s nakedness, he went and told his other brothers, and laughed at Noah. He made mockery of Noah. One of the brothers wouldn’t even look at his father. He got a blanket. He saw he was in a cave and he walked backward so he wouldn’t see his father’s nakedness. He covered his father up. It was Shem. A true son will not expose the shame of his father to another person. He’ll go one on one and have counsel with his father and get correction. He can speak into his father’s life because the father knows that his son loves him. Because he showed him through example.
    Paraclete. If you go to the amplified bible and you see one of the attributes of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a paraclete. In the Roman government and the Roman army, you were always assigned a buddy, and that is where that word actually comes from. If you became under attack, and then all of a sudden you were outnumbered, you know your buddy would protect your backside. You couldn’t see in the back. So every time you fight, I realize that I don’t have to watch my back. He’s got my back. That’s what a son does to his father. He doesn’t expose his father’s nakedness. That’s what a true son does. He authorizes his father to speak into his life. The father knows that he has his back and the son knows that the father has his back.
    Family will fight and act a fool and fall out with each other. But let somebody down the road come starting something. I don’t care if your daddy is a drunkard, and every time he gets home, he drinks all the paycheck in liquor and stumbles down the road. He can be the town drunk, but you better not say anything about my daddy. We’re not going to let anyone say anything about him. You cover his nakedness. A son that won’t protect his daddy’s back is a hider. When a son won’t protect his daddy’s back, he has to find somebody else that is worthy of passing down the legacy to that is not even his biological children. The father will pour that out to them.
    Somebody that doesn’t love their dad, doesn’t care, is there for what they can get, and they think that just because they were birthed biologically, they are going to be passed on the legacy. No. If you’re out there running women and acting crazy and on drugs, do you think your daddy is going to give you enough money so you can buy enough drugs to kill yourself and have an overdose? No. He’s going to keep that from you. He doesn’t want you to die. He’ll pass it on to somebody else that will protect his back. You can become a son even though you’re not a biological son, if you have the heart of a son. In Proverbs, it talks about that.
    For Father’s Day, traditionally, a lot of people come together and they have a Father’s Day message to say what the bible says about being a father. Being a father is an awesome responsibility because you have to train your kids. You can’t pass it on to your wife, to grandma and granddaddy and them. You have to train your kids up. God holds you responsible for training up children. In Proverbs 22:6, it’s talking about father son relationships. A lot of times, you’ll see children going to church, but the daddy is too drunk to even get up in the morning. So he’ll send his wife to church and the children with the wife. But is that Biblical? No.
    Proverbs 22:6King James Version (KJV)
    6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
    Does it say,” Dad’s turn your children over to your wife, so that they can be saved.”
    God holds up the responsibility of the children to the man. The children belong to the man. Kerri would be emotionally attached to her children because she would hold them for nine months. When Junior and Alexis were crying in the crib, I didn’t have to get up at 5 in the morning, I was sleep. A little whimper, and she would get up. Sometimes I would be sleeping like a log, and I’d say,” What you getting up for?” She’d say,” Don’t you hear Junior crying?” I’d say,” No. I didn’t hear anything. ZZZZZ”
    Do you know why I didn’t hear? I wasn’t emotionally attached to him. You know what pushed my hot button? She did. I was in tune with her. She’s my helpmate. If she needed something. What you need, Baby? If she knew how to honor me, then guess what? Junior was going to get that new pair of tennis shoes. He was going to get that pair of cowboy boots.
    The father has the responsibility of training up the children. He can’t pass that responsibility over to the wife. It’s good that his wife helps him and everything, if she will, but God’s going to hold the man responsible if the children get to acting a fool. When a man gets saved, the whole family gets saved. Abraham started following God. He didn’t even have any biological children, but when Lot got captured and everything, Abraham got 300 trained men as servants. Abraham trained the servants. The trained servants were warriors and they recovered everything. He had to take time to train them. Every servant followed everything he said. He passed it down and he said,” This is the way it’s going to work. This is the way it’s going to happen. “ It takes time to do that. It takes time for a father to do that. If the father doesn’t do it, that boy is going to get trained by somebody else. It will be just like that song, ‘cat’s in the cradle’.
    What you sow, you are going to reap that harvest. If you don’t have time to sow into your children, they’re not going to have time for you. They’ll be more successful than you could even dream of in your life, but in their business of life, they’re not going to have time for you. They’ll have time for their family and their kids, but they won’t have time for you. You’ve got to have a relationship with a person. If you don’t have a relationship with a person, then you’re not going to put any time into it.
    On this Father’s Day, we thank God for the Godly father that spend time with their kids. Adrian, Junior, and Alexis turned out to be halfway decent because of their mom, because I was on deployment a lot of the time in the military. I couldn’t have passed that authority on and say go raise them and take them to church. When I was in, I did take them to church. I made them go to church. If they didn’t want to go to church, they had to go to church. I didn’t just sit back and say,” I’m tired. You take them to church.” No. I went to church with them. They saw that I led by example. They saw me in church. They saw how important it was for me to sit under the word of God. How can you say you love somebody, but yet you don’t spend time with them?

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