The Legacy of Fatherhood - Bishop T.D. Jakes

[Music] go to the book of Genesis when you start talking about father you gotta go back to the beginning go back to the book of Genesis chapter 49 verse 1 through 2 and then I'm gonna drop down to 28 and 33 because I really want to deal with the framework in between verse 2 and verse 28 Jacob is dealing with his family but I want to deal with the framework with which he puts in context how he deals with his family before for Father's Day when you have a saved man and it reads loosely and

Jacob called unto his sons and said gather together gather yourselves together that I may tell you that put your befall you in the last days gather yourselves together and here ye sons of Jacob and hearken unto Israel your father okay now we're down in verse 28 I think it's true giving them their prophetic words he closes out this way he says all these are the twelve tribes of Israel and this is it that their father spake unto them and bless them every one according to his blessing he blessed them and he charged him for he

bless him and then he charged him and said unto them I am to be gathered unto my people bearing me with my father's in the cave that it is the field of Ephron the Hittite in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan which Abraham brought it with the field of Ephron for he tied the he tied for a possession of a burying-place he was ready for this there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife and there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his and there I

buried Lea my wife that's where I want to be with my folks the purchase of the feel and of the cave that is very in was from the children of Heth and when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons he gathered up his feet into the bed he gathered up his feet into the bed and yielded up the ghost and was gathered unto his people can you say man that's some good stuff right there I want to talk today from the subject the legacy of fatherhood the legacy of fatherhood say that with me

your fatherhood has a legacy and it's a legacy that's very important that we cannot break spirit of the Living God fall afresh on us since we delve until he word today let the word be made flesh while it's being preached today let him give life to us drift to us nourishment to us nutrition to us and let it bless somebody today in the name of Jesus we pray somebody shout amen you may be seated in the presence of the Lord it is an interesting thing to note when we start talking about father's and I'm going

to talk about fathers and I admit I don't always do occasional message I kind of preach the right day or not but this just so happens that God has given me some of our fathers and I want to share with you today that I think it's important I will bless you and my mind went back to an interview I heard Billy Graham do before he passed away the National evangelists have traveled the world preaching the gospel and winning souls that was on television and did amazing things filled our stadiums did films did things before I

ever came along he was doing just amazing things incredible things for that and as he became older they asked him did he have any regrets and he said if I had only one regret it would only be that I didn't get to spend as much time with my children now the man who should the world and probably want more people to Jesus than anybody else in the world the only regret he had was not that he'd be a better preacher not that he get more engagements not that he'd be a better speaker not that he

had more money not that he had more recognition not that he had more headlines not that he beaten more articles but then he spent more time laying on the floor playing the horsey with four kids then he spent more time teaching them how to fish then he spent more time letting them ride on his back now that seems crazy considering this man had the nation on his back council kings and presidents solve disputes broke through yokes of political barriers and boundaries and it's probably one of the most revered preachers of his entire lifetime probably without

question and and and in spite of all of that high exotic opulent beautiful amazing things that he did it was the simple things that he missed the most the joy of fatherhood now fatherhood must be important if he regretted it above all the amazing things he did and yet today we find ourselves living in a time that we have a deficit of father then I found out that we have a deficit of fathers in a manner of categories we have a deficit of fathers we have fathers who abandon the job of being fathers and we

have fathers who are so busy making a living that they were present but they were absent and and and their way of fathering is by providing for their children and it takes you a long time to realize that it took me a long time then while it is important that you provide in fact it's necessary that you provide and sometimes we had to go away to provide but your presence is important to it's not just your present it is also your presence and a lot of times we as men do not value our presence as

much as we do bringing presents and we have a tendency to go for that which gives us the greatest response but it takes you a while to recognize that what people really want your wife your spouse if you got the right wife and if you if you got the right spouse if you got the right children is that they value your presence more than they do your presence and until you learn to agree with them about that it just says something about how you see yourself and it's just an area where you need to be

healed to the point that you begin to say I am enough so let's start that by saying I am enough now now you must understand when God our Heavenly Father got ready to make somebody that look like him he made man now when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray the first words they utter is not Oh El Shaddai Oh Elohim Oh jehova rapha jehova sickening or here in mana no he says the first thing I want you to say to him is call him our Father because you have a relationship with him that sets you

apart from people who know him casually or create or ially you have a level of relationship with him that suggests intimacy and I want you to take advantage of the fact that the ruler of the universe the CEO of heaven the King of Kings the Lord of lords the mighty God the Prince of Peace is also your father your father is the boss he's in charge of everything he's got everything up under his control if you see he's a healer if your law sees away maker if you're stuck on one side he's a bridge over

troubled waters whatever you need him to be whenever you need him to be he's able to be that and he's your father how cool is that so God Himself who said on the universe set on the universe and made heaven his throne and earth his footstool God Himself who created the evening in the morning and made the first day God exists in eternity and created time and made the top tick and the watch run then the day start and the night in God who spent out the seventh season told him how far they could go

and when they went too far pull them back that show god who flung the Stars into the sky and told him stay where I put you and put the Sun out there and made it shine and made that day and made the earth spin around it and made that night that's your daddy your daddy made the universe your daddy's in charge everything and you got clout because he's your father you don't have to walk up to him like a visitor or a stranger you don't have to walk up to him and hope you get accepted

you don't have to ring the doorbell at the house and wait on the maid to answer to the door to see if he's in the mood to see you today you don't have to set an appointment you don't have to do anything you can just walk Bowl in the house and walk right up to him and say amma which means daddy you're what's up I'm home if you're not taking advantage of the fact that God is your father shame on you because he sees you as his child and you can come boldly to the throne

of grace and find grace to help in the time of need and when God got ready to make his first son his first made son he created Adam out the dust of the earth with his own hand everything else he created with his mouth by speaking but when it came to man he formed him from the dust on earth and breathed in him the breath of life and that's when divinity met humanity the divine breath of God blew into the humanity of a clay shell and man became a living soul he's to claim to be

his father but he is too divine to be the dirt he is a mixture of divinity and humanity the offspring of God the counterpart of the divine and the supernatural God breathed eternity into the temporal God breathed eternity into time and man became a living though Hebrew word his nefesh he became a living soul he became aware of himself he's not just like a plant who was alive but didn't cry when you cut it because it's not aware of itself it has life but it has no soul man has a soul he has a soul

he is a spirit he has a soul he lives in a body and he became aware of himself and he became the image of his father created in the image of God God said to himself let us make man the word God there is Elohim you know being one God in a pluralistic way says to the counsel of himself let us make man in our own in our own likeness and in our own image after our own kind of other less in other words let's have a baby that looks like us so God didn't have

to go out and get married he didn't have to swipe left to find a girlfriend he didn't need a date for the evening he didn't need to get a mother a surrogate mother to fill in for him God all by himself with himself or himself male enough to have the seed female enough to have the world carried the man in the womb of his own mind birthday mout of his head and created man from the dust of the earth and man became a living soul man became a living soul he became a living message and

he was so much like God he was so much like God that when the first body got read the person person got ready to be made Adam didn't need a wife to have a baby in fact the first birth that was ever done in the earth was not done by a woman it was done by a man because the man was so much like his father that he didn't need anything outside of himself to create what was inside of himself and God put him to sleep and he had a baby without a woman he opened

him up and did the first c-section and brought Eve out of Adam and she looked at him and he said whoa look what came out of me okay so when you're talking about Adam you're talking about God's son he's God's son he's God's Son now Jesus is His only begotten Son but Adam is his first form son he formed him from the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life that he became a living so there are three times that we hear God talking about sons actually four then we hear God

talking about sons one Adam is his son and then he informs freo favor I'm gonna beat you until my turn you turn my son loose because Israel is my son my firstborn sons you remember that he said Israel is my son and I'm gonna show you why he said Israel is my son God said Israel is my son because he had begotten Israel he had he had formed Israel prove it to you he waited until I until Abraham was an old man and when Abraham's body could no longer produce a seed God gave him a

seed and when God seed hid Sarah's womb it hid that old woman's woman it quicking her and made her psycho come back she got pregnant and had a baby because the seed that hid her womb was Jesus Wow the seed that hid Sarah's womb with Jesus now I know you getting ready throw me out of the church for saying that but why did Jesus come 42 generations later and say I am the seed of Abraham he said I am the seed of Abraham I am what God Sarah pregnant I am what caused her an old

woman with wrinkled knees and saggy breasts to have a baby I am so potent that I brought her womb back to life I am so strong that when I hid her womb I rebuked time since I made time I control time and when I hid her womb I rebuke time and made her have a new time and all of a sudden an old woman starts having a baby because I am the seed of Abraham that's why he says I am the resurrection of life before he resurrected Adam before he resurrected the widow of nain before

he turned water into wine he resurrected Sarah's dead womb brought it back to life again I'm preaching better than you're talking he brought it back to life again and here this whole woman is walking around town with her belly stuck out because God had touched her womb and brought it back to life so you must understand then that Adam is his first foreign son Israeli is his first born son Christ is his first and only begotten son because he's begotten from the womb of the dead he's raised from the dead Christ is his only begotten

Son and then finally the fourth now beloved now are ye the sons of God that does not yet appear well ye shall be but you should see him as he is and we should be like if all of this is about fatherhood all of this is about fatherhood and you can't talk about fatherhood without talking about image image he's created in my image and my likeness and my image is my legacy my image is my legacy my legacy carries my genes carries my images - carries my characteristics carries my name is my legacy my legacy

is what I leave my prophecy is what I aspire to my legacy is what I leave behind what I leave in the world as evidence I was here that's what it means to be a father to leave somebody in the earth as a testimony that you were here and how you shape that person and how you develop that person is the artistry of fatherhood the conversations you have with them the moments you let them see of you the things you are vail of your self being a father is a great apocalypse of masculinity you do

not allow your baby son to see up under your skirts but throughout the course of life you little by little you unveil who you are as a man as they get older and older and they begin to understand things about you that you couldn't tell them when they were younger because it wasn't time yet when the earlier you hide your skirts glory to God because they're not ready enough to see you as you are I asked Noah sons what happens when you behold the father ahead of time the gradual unveiling of who you are as

a man is something that happens over time as you and your son go through life together as he becomes a man as he becomes a man you begin to reveal yourself as a man so that he can see his likeness and you can see yours in each other when he's developed to the point that he begins to look like you this is good I want to describe it to you because we don't always get the benefit of seeing it even those are those of us that have a father don't always get to see it we

don't always get to see it I thought in our lives we don't always get to see it in our relationship because maybe my father's an alcoholic maybe my father is strung out on drugs maybe my father's on cocaine maybe my father is a crossdresser maybe my father's decided not to be a father at all maybe my father never came home and so the mirror is left without an image and whatever passes by the image the mirror reflects it for in the absence of a fatherhood at anything that gets nearer a mirror the mirror will reflect

whatever is closest to it if it's a mama it will reflect mama if it's drug dealers it will reflect drug dealers if it's gang leaders it will reflect gang leaders if it's businessmen it will reflect business man if it's dirty white-collar crimes it will reflect whatever you put in front of it because to be a son is an image impressionable and whatever gets closest to it it will reflect are you hearing what I'm saying so all of you who say the fathers don't matter you need to change your philosophy on that because fathers are very

important particularly for boys because boys need something to reflect offer to figure out what am I supposed to be when I get here or there or elsewhere that's very important to understand that now I know that your child's father might not have been a good husband but that doesn't always mean that he can't be a good father just like you're being a good mother doesn't always make you a good wife those are two completely different distinctive jobs in a perfect world you want to be good at both of them some of us are good at

one of them and some of us are good at none of it and anytime a man is old enough to make a baby but not to raise the baby if somebody is going to anytime you're old enough to put a ring on a finger but not old enough to be a husband somebody's gonna get hurt and it is very difficult to go from adolescence to adulthood as a man and not leave a trail of blood somewhere behind you where you hurt somebody a trail of blood for a woman in the Old Testament was a sign

of her purity when she gave birth that the man penetrating the woman was a sign of them entering into covenant in fact the marriage was not considered legitimate until the couple brought out a bloody sheet as a sign that they had left a trail of blood that was a sign of the authenticity of the marriage the man groped the ham and the woman provided the blood the blood cost the covenant and the Covenant sealed the marriage now there are not many bloody sheets left in the world today Oh y'all got quiet on me y'all got

quite a thought I was with there not many bloody seats left in the world today I don't want to make you feel bad I don't want to make you feel guilty there are not many bloody sheets in the world today because there not many men who are there to be the kinds of father so they're not there supposed to be and in the absence of fatherhood there not many women who kept on who kept the blood reserved for somebody in covenant so what we have today is a shadow of what God had in mind it's

just a mirror image of what God had in mind so the question emerges can imperfect people develop a functional relationship that's the question before us ask the question whether you want to talk about it not talk about it whether you live in a good neighborhood a bad neighborhood with your lid rat or whether you live in the suburbs or whether you got a house that's as long as the football field or whether you got a house on top of a garage that is still the question money does not erase the question of relationship relationship is

not something you pay for with a check relationship is not something you earn with degrees just because you have more degrees than a thermometer does not make you a good father just because you make a lot of money does not make you a good father y'all here with me today y'all ain't with me today being a father has something to do with your ability to have a relationship skill of which the child can reflect and depend and grow and develop and understand himself in the light of the unique nuances that you bring to the relationship

because you are not duplicating mama but it's hard not to duplicate mama when the only father you ever saw was a woman so when the only father you ever saw was a woman that didn't you go marry a woman both of y'all are trying to give the kid the same thing because all you can give to the child is what you got and if you didn't get any fatherhood it's hard to give what you didn't get okay we gonna get down to this we ain't shouting today we will get down into understanding what God is

calling for when he started talking about our Father not now you must understand that the pattern was perfect the pattern was perfect because the first pattern was God the pattern was perfect but if you go to the to the material store and you pick out a pattern and you go buy some fabric the pattern may be perfect but if there's a flaw in the material no matter how well you cut along the lines of the pattern there's going to be a flaw in the dress not because the pattern wasn't perfect but there's a flaw in

the material this is the story this is this is the gospel that's what the gospel is about a perfect pattern and a flawed material that is John 3:16 that is the gospel message that is the story with Adam and God that is the story of the prodigal son that is the story that is your story that is my story that my pattern was perfect but my garment was flawed so what do you do when you have a floral garment and you have a perfect pattern you can drink it up you can smoke it up you

can get high you can avoid it you can ignore it you can discard it you can you can say it doesn't matter you say I don't believe in it but does the gospel have a place for a flawed man to end up a great father that's what I want to talk to you about today and I think that every man in the world needs to hear this message and I think you oughta text every man you know to get him on the line and every woman who's raising a son to be a man needs to

hear this message and every woman who works with men needs to hear this message and every woman who wants a man needs to hear this message because a lot of the women who want a man are actually looking for a girlfriend the reason I say you're looking for a girlfriend is that your value system of what relationships are about are feminine and you don't understand that the way of man expresses our love is not the same way as a woman expresses love and so you're really looking for a female and a pair of pants and

if they don't respond to you in feminine ways you don't feel loved because the only love you ever experienced with mama so it's not just the sons that need the love of a father the girl needs the love of a father too she needs to understand a man signals because men don't always speak with language they speak with sync up signals and body language and we respond to things in nonverbal communication and you need to learn how to read our face and our expression and our moves and and what does it mean and interpret that

correctly and if you never grew up in the house with that you don't need you don't really understand that my silence doesn't have anything to do with you so you won't be following me all around the house honey what's wrong what's wrong nothing wrong I'm just not you I'm wired differently than you I respond differently to you I don't cry about the things you cry about I don't respond I don't mean I don't care that I mean I don't love the child that doesn't mean I'm not upset that I mean I'm not worried it just

means that I'm different male and female he created them and they are different now you must then begin to understand if you take a flawed man and you take a flawed woman and you put them into a marriage the question becomes can you survive long enough to make this work which brings me to my text today in the text today the reason I wanted to use Jacob to preach about fatherhood is because Jacob was a jerk yeah yeah Jacob was a jerk make that make another that Jacob was a jerk yeah and I chose him

to preach about fatherhood because I want you to know that you can be a jerk you can start out a jerk and end up a dad your lingo talked to me today you you can you can start out you can start out misguided confused or dumb stuff making mistakes and still in a a great dad just because you came from dysfunction doesn't mean you can't learn the function Jacob was a jerk now there are degrees to jerk hood okay his grandfather was a jerk but not nearly as much of a jerk as he was Abraham

was a jerk he lied about Sarah he made some mistakes in his life he made some mistresses he carried terror and he didn't need to carry him he cared a lot he didn't need to tell him he had to share a lot of things along the way when God called Abram out of Mesopotamia he was not the man of faith that he became later in his life he had to get rid of his father-in-law had to get rid of of a lot it was a journey it was a process of his life Lot's wife had

to die he had to make some choices and little by little he had to become a better man and even then he had a concubine and a whole nother set of families that came we don't want to talk about there that grew up out of his life and he still was able to get Sarah pregnant through a god-given seed and produce a holy Lenny's out of a flawed man you can be a reject make mistakes have failed been in prison been locked up done dirty deals got somebody pregnant been on the wrong side of thryce

and still your life is recyclable it is possible for you to be healed and restored and bill your way and work your way and forgive your way and cry your way and apologize your way into an effective relationship you don't have to allow the gravitational pull of your past to pull you further and further into the abyss of obscurity you can resist that gravitational pull and rise above the vicissitudes of life and turn your life around I feel like shelter I'm a witness you're a witness we're with nobody comes here without a story to tell

and it's just resisting your story and pulling out your ball from Abraham Lincoln better angels and begin to evolve and Abraham did that and eventually God rewarded him with a son but he was old he was old before God rewarded him with a son maybe God let Abraham get old before he gave him a son to give him time to be a better image to his son now Abraham is the father of faith okay he's the father's faith he is the father and the progenitor of of the three biggest religions in the world today all

trace their roots back to Abraham whether you're Christian whether you're Jew or whether you're Muslim you all trace your roots back to Abraham and Abraham has some issues okay he has some issues in fact all the men in the Bible had issues and the women in the Bible had issues too and yet it is possible for the story to continue through all types of years I get out of it on my fountain at home and I get a drink of water whenever I want to and the water is clean enough that it doesn't kill me

I don't live in Flint I can get a good decent glass of water out of my fountain without having to put a lot of purifiers there are still some impurities in it but it's not to the degree that it affects my body in any apparent way and I'm still able to get some water out of my fountain but the truth of the matter is if I got down in the ground and dug up the pipe that water travels through a lot of corrode to get to my glass and yet in spite of the corrosion it

is possible for me to still get a good drink of water from a rusty piece of pipe y'all ain't gonna talk to me today I need a fresh congregation it is possible for me to get a good drink of water through a rusty piece of pipe America has spent less money in his infrastructure then it has on anything that we spent money we spent money on everything except our infrastructure you know why it's under the ground and we like to spend money where it can be seen so that we get credit for it but the

real important stuff that needs to be fixed we don't fix it because it is hidden and lack America we have a tendency as of people to fix the surface we fix our bodies we fix our faces we work out in the gym we get new hair we get implants we get breast plans we get butt plan we fix everything on the outside but the stuff the stuff on the inside we don't put money into it as important as it is because it's not saying I want to deal with the pipes of you I want to

deal with the things underground because you cannot marry somebody's grass you marry their plumbing you don't get what's on the outside you marry what's on the inside you dare you you date the front yard but you marry the plumbing oh you're legal talk to me you're legal talk to me many are the princes who fell in love with somebody and married him cuz the line look good and then they got married in front of this joker got a leak I mean he got two or three links she got a leak she crazy she fine but

she crazy my crazy crazy and it's because we don't spend time working on our plumbing because plumbing is complicated and plumbing is generational and plumbing runs deep and Polly has a lot of issues and it has a lot to do with what was reflected in front of us became the image became the legacy our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven is asking God give me a better image so that I can be a reflection of that wheel on earth

as it is in heaven not as it is in my parentage Abraham was a liar he had a son who was a liar Abraham lying about his wife and his son Isaac lied about his wife in the same way in the same place at the same time even though he wasn't born when his father lied he still told his father's lie without having experienced his father's lie because he was a reflection of his father can I go deeper with it so Abraham was a liar and when Isaac and Isaac weren't even born yet then Isaac

was born and Isaac had a bad wife like his father did he made a fine woman like his father did because he ended up marrying his mama and most men end up made to somebody who has some reflection of their mother and he married somebody who was like his mother and she was fine she was so fine that Isaac was a friend to tell anybody that she was his wife and he told her instead that she was his and like just like his father did without learning the lie it passed down through the legacy oh

god help me Jesus the legacy of his father and now he has told the same lie that his father did later he will undo all of his father's wills because he is continuing the legacy of his father he will dig out those wills my Abraham is considered a righteous man he is the father Frey in fact God said Abraham believed God and it was counted unto Him as righteously then Abraham had so much faith that it canceled out all his mistake God said I don't care what he did I don't care how he lied Abraham

is still my friend cuz Abraham believe me and I will give him righteousness credit I'll give him a 7.0 score I'll give him a score that he didn't heard because he believes me and is counted under him as righteousness and because of that righteousness Abraham is declared righteous read the book of Romans Abraham is declared righteous Roman says they imputed righteousness under him they have parted righteousness under him Isaac inherited that righteousness and walked into that righteousness and then he he married Rebecca and and her side of the family got in the bloodline and they

were tricksters and schemers and Connors and Rebecca had a cousin had an uncle named Laban who was a trickster and a con honest and a liar and and and my momma said be careful who you mix your seed with because you can never get it out and so Isaac mixed his seed with Rebecca and they had Jacob and all of the generational curses that were in their bloodline got in Abraham's bloodline and produced Jacob and so Jacob was a trickster in a con artist and a liar and a whole lot of stuff and he had

a whole lot of problems and he had a whole lot of his name means trickster his name means con artist he jacob jacob were telling lie before he told the truth he was slick he was greasy like his uncle a bird he was a liar like his mama and he was abraham's grandchild what a combination wherever he went he stirred up some sir he stole the birthright he ripped off his physician he made a mess of every situation he fell out with his brother they didn't speak for over 20 years there was a mess in

his life he went up on the mountaintop and got into a fight with God he had to fight with God till God crippled him and God told him your name is Israel your name is Israel you're not who you acting like they're the prints found in you Israel means prison there's a prince down in you and you don't understand who you are but I'm gonna walk you through it anyway and so God says to him your name shall no longer be called Jacob but your name shall be called Israel because you are Prince and you

have power with God and yet years later when God would meet Moses at the burning bush God would say I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob not the God of Abraham Isaac and Israel so even though God said his name shall no longer be called Jacob eventually God called him Jacob because Jacob had issues and yet Jacob was the son that produced the twelve tribes of to Israel Abraham produced the see Isaac passed the seed Jacob multiplied the seed Joseph moved the seed you know what I'm saying everybody has a role to play

in order to become the man that you're supposed to be Jacob wrestles with God all night and in the morning God had to hit him to break him as God had to hit you to break him he has he had to break you down and Samaria as God had to let you fail to break you has God had to put you in jail to break you as God had to let the stock market crash to break you and you had to lose your house to break you have you had to bid a halfway house to

break you have you been in a center to break you have you gone through something where God had to hit you where only God can hit you because you beat up everybody else and you tell everybody else huh but you couldn't whip God and God broke down and you left out off the mountain limping because you've been with God everybody else shall because they've been with God a male dancer cuz I've been with got a bounce jerking cuz I've been with God but you're sad that you've been with God is that you liveth you used

to be pimpin but now you limpid cuz God got a hold to your life cuz God has a plan for your life with God has a plan for your life whatever he has to do to take the fight out of you he will take the fight out of you so that you will have a legacy a fatherhood are you hear what I'm saying to you now I would love to tell you that Jacob spent the rest of his life moral and holy and perfect and good but the truth of the matter is Jacob's Jacob lived

the rest of his life he limped he lived the rest of his life it is likely that limp that made him late to get back there when Rachel was having a baby in the tent because because he had to limp on back there while she was in labor and by time she got back there she had died and she birthed a son and she called him but no now son of my sorrows the Jacob said his name should be called Benjamin son of my strength and because the father said his name shall be called Benjamin

he became the son of his strength and all the kings of Israel came out of Benjamin because you are who your father says you are you are who your father says you are limping all shudder limp and all late and all slow and all dysfunctional at all it wasn't what his mama said about him it wasn't what his founder saying about him that made him become who he was and all the kings of Israel came out of Benjamin the tribe of Benjamin and he became Benjamin because the old man canceled out what his dead mother

called him and said you will not be born in the sorrows of a bitter woman who never got loved the way she should have been loved your name shall be called Benjamin that's why we need our fathers back we need to cancel out the curses that are wounded and broken women have placed on their children they were wounded because we left them they were wounded because we heard them they were wounded because they were wounded when we got them they were wounded because they had problems they were wounded when they had issue but if a

wounded woman produces a child if she now careful she will allow the wound to get on the child and you got to take your limp and self back there and tell them no you are not that all men are not dogs you don't have to hate your own masculinity oh man I'm not dull you are son of my strength data came in you hear me in the prison house there's a king in you hear me in the White House there's a king and you hear me in the whorehouse there the king where you live you

just haven't had the right person to call the King out of you and Jacob lives his life and he lives his life like all men live their lives with strengths and weaknesses and rights and wrongs and powers and failures and flaws and human moments and divine moments and his his life is like helter skelter sometimes up and sometimes down sometimes right and sometimes wrong sometimes in and sometimes out but he's still God's man I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and in my text and my text he has come down to the end

of his life and the death angel is standing over in the corner and he has come to take him away and instead of dying he held death in May and the Bible said that Jacob set up in the man Israel set up in the bed and strengthened himself he said I'm not leaving till all my sons gather around the bed they are my legacy and so when the curtain rolls back in the scene begins we see not the young man Jacob not the trickster Jacob not the confused and angry Jacob not the Jacob who wrestled

with God on the mountain Jacob but in the old days we see Jacob the Jacob who had lost his son Joseph and found his son Joseph the take-up who had gone through such deep depression that he said if my sorrows had brought me down to the grave head were stood the depression and live to see the restoration with his son when Jacob walks into Egypt and he sees Joseph his son it is like a love story because Jacob had spent years of depression because they told him his son was there and when they told him

that his son was alive he came to Egypt and and the reconciliation was a love story of the whole Testament the love story of your life is to connect to your son the love story of your life is not in some room swiping left the love story of your life is not in a hotel bed up against a hit will the love story of your life is not in a promotion on your job the love story of your life is connect back to your child and he found it his legacy his future and once he

got it back he never lost it again get your child back I don't care what you have to do I don't care how angry he is I don't care how upset he is I don't care how she cries I don't care how she rejects you I don't care how they put up a fight tried act like they don't care they do care fight for them and get them back I don't care if he's in a dress I don't care if he's in a drag show I don't care if he's in a prison seal find your

son finally you're to her and connect with them and so the same looks sad to you because the carton rolls back and the old man is in the band but it's really not a sad story it's a moment of victory because all of his sons again at around the bed you know what that means that means everything that the devil tried to steal from him as a man God gave it back to him and he told death wait in the corner I'll be with you directly and he set up in the bed and he strengthened

himself and the dying old man prophesied to Dan and net felon and a cigar and Benjamin and Judah and Simeon and Levi they were all gathered around the bed and he was telling them who they were and when he finished he said let me tell you who I am my grandfather was Abraham it's a tie ball whoa excuse me I'm sorry whoa my grandfather will Abraham and they buried him right here his mama was Sarah and they buried her over there my father was Isaac and they buried him over there and my mama was Rebecca

and they bade her Rachel and they buried her right there and he went down through the line and he said I'm about to join my father's but before I go as I join my father's I speak to your future you shall prevail Benjamin you shall revered as a walk in the morning you should devour the prey and the evening you shall divide the spoils Judah a lawgiver shall not depart from your feet until Shiloh comes out of your noise shall come shallow which is Jesus and when he got finished talking to them though man pulled

his legs up in the bed and laid back out on the double and went to the land of his father's he went to the land of his father's because it took him all of his life to be a great father [Applause] any wallet that'll be honest I tell you it takes your whole life to be a good mama it takes your whole life you don't be a good mama because you had a baby and you came home with the carriage you don't mean you're not a good mama just because you dropped him off at school

it takes your whole life to be a good mom about time your good mama your knees are giving out and your back is aching your hair has turned white and your breasts begin to say and then they start calling you stuff like Big Mama and grape mama and grandmama it takes your whole life to be a good mama so if it takes your whole life to be a good mama give us some time give us some time to be a good father if we could celebrate you while you grow celebrate us while we grow too

even though we're growing in different areas what was easy for you was hard for me but what was hard for you I got you on that and so hard to stand together is to strengthen ye one another and so on this Father's Day I want to say to the fathers don't give up on yourself cuz your story is complicated I want to say to the mothers don't give up on the father's because their stories are conflicted I want to say to the sons you're not as angry at your daddy as you are hurt and stop

taking the cheap way out and I can like you angry when the truth is you heart be strong enough to come Nahum hurt and broken and find out how he's broken because wherever you're broken he's broken close to it too and you'll never understand yourself until you understand your father because you are the legacy you have a legacy a fatherhood there's something in his secrets that's in the cells of your skin there's something of his strength that's in the claim in your heart and you need to find him and understand him and realize that you'll

never forgive the flaws in you do you forgive the flaws in him this is some legacy a fatherhood and so I thought to myself on this Father's Day I would not preach about all the perfect men with all the perfect grades with all the perfect lives with all the perfect habits the never broke a rule who are honored in their community who never made a mistake I thought I would feel pass all of that phony camouflage and deal with the unit cries at night and wonders why you're even in the world and wonders does anybody

understand the pain you feel and wonders if you can carry the load of the weight of being you while you carry the load of helping them be there I want to speak to the you that seldom gets faded seldom gets water that seldom gets touched it I want to speak to the part of you that wants to fall apart but if you would fall who would catch you and take you on this Father's Day you can simply say our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on

earth as it is give us I'm so hungry I'm hungry as a man I'm hungry as a father I'm hungry as a son I'm hungry as a worker give us this day I'm so hungry I'm feeding people but I'm hungry give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses I guess a mess of my life and I forgive those who trespass against me but there is a kingdom and the power hi Gloria this is my legacy for my son in Medora and my grandchildren forever and ever and ever I need you now

like I never needed you before forever and ever amen [Music] [Music] happy Father's Day can I pray for farmers today can I pray for would-be fathers young fathers start now fathers fathers who are still living with your momma teenage fathers fathers who are HIV positive and fathers who are using a little bit but you don't think you're addicted fathers who are imprisoned and fathers who were broken and corporate fathers and executive fathers and musician fathers and artistic fathers and workaholic fathers and all the fathers who use all kind of camouflage to fake the fact that

I'm trying to be some that I never fully guy can I pray for you today for all the angry fathers who are slapping your wife but looking at your mama can I pray for you today for all the fathers with all the secrets and all the brokenness in all the scars that you can't seem to drink enough to wash away or make enough money or bad enough houses or I have enough yard so join enough country clubs a drinking of bulls farm smoke enough joints can I pray for you and remind you that he is

the God of Jacob and somewhere in this world for every Jacob there is a woman who loves and you really don't have to be alone and hide like atom in your feet leaves the father right now there will be tears and dinners and cufflinks and cologne and socks and underwear and all kind of stuff given to all calves of men for Christmas and there will be kids who refused to call and daughters are too mad to pick up the phone but what matters most for Father's Day is it you would give each man listening the

gift of coming to himself of finding out who he is and the grace of time to understand and it takes all of your life to be a good father so while you go and while you grow take the Lord with you if you don't know him invite him into your heart right now this ask him Jesus I'm trying to do something that I never saw done and be something that I never saw in the whole of my life and I need you to help me I pray for every black father every quite father every brown

father every young father every whole father every rich father every poor father every father who's tried every trick and scam trying to get up on his feet I pray for every father those weaknesses that push you so far in a corner that you Adam are all alone [Music] I pray for you right now the joy the peace of the power and the Holy Spirit but come into your life in the name of Jesus and you will never be the same right now out of the ashes of your disparity faith is rising up in your heart

and pieces coming into your spirit and joy is coming into your soul and maybe you don't need those guns you thought your head to have and maybe you don't need those maps and those how feels that all this stuff you got to make everybody think you tough maybe you can climb up in the lap of God and get your little boy here in Jesus name Amen clap your hands if you understood the word ago listen if you prayed that prayer with me or if you sent this message to anybody or if you know somebody that

received from this mercy if it gave you enlightenment whether you're a mother a son a daughter a grandmother or just a person who has to work with all types of people I want to hear from you because let me tell you something restoration begins with understanding you cannot restore what you cannot understand and some people you can't understand is because your ears are so clogged with your own voice that the only story you can hear is the one you tell yourself I pray this message unclog your ears to better understand somebody whose actions might have

been irritable but their heart was also broken it changes how you see every day right here in Dallas from The Potter's House to your house we leave you with the Word of God god bless you and may heaven smile upon you support this ministry there's none like it in the world and if it blesses you and if you'd feed and if it heals you and becomes your counselor and your doctor and your way making your bridge over troubled waters and if God uses it to bring things to you that you couldn't afford to get on

your own support this ministry if it doesn't do anything for you don't watch it don't watch it don't tune in don't comment this ignore it but if it speaks to you if it feels in the gaps and sands off the rough edges and ministers to you in places that you can't find anywhere else the only thing I ask you to know whatever level you are able I'm not even dealing with they don't solve away maturity begins when you feed what's feeding you if it's feeding you if it's growing you if it's leading you if it's

strengthening you I want to hear from you your support makes a real big difference and what we're able to do for the kingdom of God for the communities we serve for the people we reach and the staff reserve as we sustain you we need you to sustain us press down shaken together and running over it has been my good pleasure to hang out with the fellas and talk with the men for a little while about how much it costs to be a good father the message is the legacy of fatherhood and if it spoke to

you at all the next time you're in the mirror shaven remember you are not the shaver you're the mirror god bless [Music] you