Ideal Father (True Crime #13.2024.09.01)

Scott Keffer [: 00:00:02

Hi. If you're looking for greater hope, assurance, and confidence through the shifting sands of life, then join me on today's episode as we dig deep into the bible to discover rock solid truth for life and living from the God of the bible. I'm your host, Scott Keffer. Hi, and welcome to today's episode. As always, for a deeper experience, you can go

Scott Keffer [: 00:00:26

to the show notes and download the blank insight sheet. Fill in the blanks along with the group. Depending on

Scott Keffer [: 00:00:32

how you're listening to this, there will be a link to the episode website at beholdingbibletruth.com, and a sheet with the answers is included as well. Enjoy today's episode.

Scott Keffer [: 00:00:46

We've moved 6 times. My dad was in the steel business. So he worked for Wheeling Pittsburgh and then National Steel, and he was climbing the corporate ladder. My my dad was Karl Kepper the 3rd. My brother was Karl Kepper the 4th. He was my brother was athletic like my dad, you know, outgoing and just smart, and he was everything that I wanted to be and wasn't. And since my dad was moving all the time, he was never home. So when when he was in sales during the week, he'd go out on Sunday, come back on Friday night, and then he'd sleep or play golf for the weekend.

Scott Keffer [: 00:01:26

And so I I rarely had interactions with him. Probably I can probably remember a handful as, as we were growing up. And so as a result of that, he was very distant from me and what it felt like and I did I don't know that I kinda thought about it, but I felt not not only unloved, but unlovable and just sort of invisible. You know? And I and then add to that, you're the middle child, so you are by nature invisible. We all have different experiences with our fathers, you know, growing up, and I wouldn't say mine was bad, as in he was evil, but it certainly wasn't good as in he was just he was just uninterested seemingly in Dakin. So we have all kind of different experiences with our father. So in the first line, if you would write down, how would you describe your relationship with your father? Word or 2. And then how did it make you feel? How would you describe your relationship with your father, and then how did it make you feel? You described your relationship with your father, and how did it make you feel? I'm guessing just in this room, we could have a whole myriad from good to bad.

Scott Keffer [: 00:02:38

And some of you are smiling with the thoughts. Some of you are crying with the thoughts. Some of you are in pain with the thought depending on your experience. So what would you say? What makes an ideal father? What would you say makes an ideal strong amount? Strong and loving. Strong, loving, present, supportive, patient, assistant, spiritual, leader, resourceful. So we all have a picture. Go ahead. Protector, Provider.

Speaker C [: 00:03:09

Teacher. Teacher. That's approachable.

Scott Keffer [: 00:03:13

We have the sense of what would be a really good father, don't we? We have inherently this sense. Well, as we're gonna we're gonna look at the video, and then I'm going to share a revelation that might stun you. And in the video, what you're gonna find is not surprisingly that a common theme among those who, are in trouble with the law is lack of father, lack of a good father. So this whole idea and thought of the role of fathers in families and mentoring and bringing up and how critical they are is a reflection and points to an eternal truth that as I began to consider this as Christians, it becomes almost because we're often and always think about God as God the father. But the the idea that the eternal God, the glorious grand designer creator of the universe is also a father is stunning. So think about when he first showed up with Moses, and Moses said, who should I say sent me? What did god say? Yeah. Yahweh. I am that I am.

Scott Keffer [: 00:04:27

The eternal one, the everlasting one, the one who was and who is and who is to come. And then shortly after that, I put in here, that he said that then you should say to pharaoh, thus says Yahweh, right, the lord Yahweh, thus said Yahweh, Israel is my my son, my firstborn. And so I put on there, Yahweh God calls himself father. Yahweh God calls himself father. And if you'd step back from the the the knowledge of who you know him to be, step out there for a minute and think the eternal god shows up and says, I'm the one who always is, always was, and always will be, the creator of heaven and earth. And by the way, you are my children. I'm I'm father. So name the name of God is who he is.

Scott Keffer [: 00:05:21

It's not a metaphor. It's not like his father. He is father. He is father. The eternal one is father, which means he's eternal father. It's his nature. It's his character. Right? It is really a stunning to me revelation, and we're used to it because we we call him father.

Scott Keffer [: 00:05:40

Well, he's he's not only claims to be the father of the nation Israel, he's the god and father. Right? He is god the father, and he is the god and father of the lord Jesus Christ. He's referred to often as the god and father of the lord Jesus Christ. The lord, right, his son, the son of god, and the son of man, Also, Jesus, the man, son of man, and Christ, the son of God. He is the god and father, which means in eternity, he is father, Jesus is son, and the spirit. Right? So we see that. He is eternally the father. Blessed be the god and father of our lord Jesus Christ.

Scott Keffer [: 00:06:22

He is also the god and father of those who are in Christ. As a result of that, he is the god and father of those who are in Christ. And he says in John, as many as received them, he said, so then he gave the what? Right. The right become children of god even to those who believe in his name who are born. Right? Not a blood blood nor the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of god. So to call god father is a right. It is a right that's granted to us, and therefore, it is also a privilege to be able to call god father. And it seems so natural to us, right, because we're Christians.

Scott Keffer [: 00:07:02

He's father, but it's to remember this is a right that God bestows, and therefore, it is a great privilege. So God calls himself father. It is who he is. It's his nature. It's his name. It's his character. And so as we look at at God as father, we start to think about it. So it was natural for me when I became a Christian at age 28 to think, I wonder if God is distant.

Scott Keffer [: 00:07:30

I wonder if God is unavailable. I wonder if God really knows who I am. I wonder if I matter to God, if he even sees me or knows me. It is normal and natural to take what we know about our father here on Earth and project it up. It's a bad thing to do. So I put on there a reminder that God defines fatherhood. God defines fatherhood because he is father. So I put on there.

Scott Keffer [: 00:08:03

God is not like your father, only bigger. It's good to remember, and you should underline this. Do not let your earthly father define God as father. Do not let your earthly father or your earthly father experience define God as father. He's not. God is the definition of father. So all earthly fathers are have fallen short. Right? Because all have sinned and fallen short of the father.

Scott Keffer [: 00:08:32

Right? He's he says there is no one like thee among the gods, oh lord, nor are there any works. In other words, none is like him at all. In fact, it's my favorite illustration that god uses the universe as his measuring stick, his yardstick. So you can understand the difference between who he is. Right? And we're always starting with, here I am. Here's my earthly father. And I tend to think, well, god must be like me. Right? He and and my father here is so maybe he's like me, but he reminds us that god is up here, and the distance is how far, 18,000,000,000 light years between my father and the father, between me and the father, for my perception of father and the real father.

Scott Keffer [: 00:09:25

So don't let him your your earthly father define God as father. So what else do we know? God is father. God is the creator. Is he not? He says, for thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst weave me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. And then he says, how precious also are thy thoughts to me, oh god. How vast is the sum of them.

Scott Keffer [: 00:09:55

If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. That's pretty stunning, isn't it? So it says, first of all, that you are the custom work of god's hands. You are the custom work of his hands. As an artist, would create a sculpture or painting, everyone unique. And he reminds us because he gives us each what? Fingerprints unlike any other. Right? And and that's the work of someone who designed the fingerprint and everything else that goes with your fingerprint. And he so you're the custom work of his hands, and it's a reminder that he knows you intimately. He knows you intimately, and he has thoughts about you.

Scott Keffer [: 00:10:41

As many as the sand as upon the seashore, how many grains of sand are there? Lots. And he he has chosen and adopted you. It says just as he chose you in him, when? Before the foundation of the earth or the world that you should be holy and blameless before him in love, he predestined you to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. And this is sonship. This is sonship. You were adopted into sonship, not gender. This has nothing to do with sons and daughters. This has to do with your position.

Scott Keffer [: 00:11:19

Right? If you are in sonship, you are in firstborn place. When you're in firstborn place, it's all that goes with the firstborn, a double blessing, as well as favor with the father. Why? Because your son's through Jesus Christ. How will you do that? According to the kind intention of his will. You have been adopted. Adoption is an irrevocable it's an irrevocable action, is it not? Therefore, god has chosen you and adopted you irrevocably, irrevocably, unable to undo. People said, oh, you can undo an adoption. Really? So he has chosen and adopted you irrevocably.

Scott Keffer [: 00:12:08

And he said as a result of that, he has blessed you with every every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Every means every, which means he has not withheld one, that there's nothing more that he could give you that he hasn't already. He has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. He's not a god who withholds. According to the I love this. According to the kind intention of his will, He's a kind and and purposeful father according to the kind intention of his will. I love that. Blessed be the god and father of our lord Jesus Christ, it says in first Peter, Let's read that.

Scott Keffer [: 00:12:55

Who according to his great mercy has called us to be born again to a living owner, to obtain an inheritance, which is inheritable and unfulfilled, it will not fade away. Reserve in heaven for you. He's he's given us the family inheritance. He has made you an heir with his son. He's giving you a share of the the the family inheritance. Who does that? Who does that? The eternal, right, glorious inheritance, you've been given a share as an heir. So you weren't just saved and forgiven. You've been made a son.

Scott Keffer [: 00:13:39

And not son as in gender. Don't get stuck in that. The son as in position. The son as in favor. The son as in a share of the inheritance. Just like on television, but wait. There's more. So I love this in Psalm 103.

Scott Keffer [: 00:13:56

He says, as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. And then he says as a father

Speaker C [: 00:14:07

has compassion

Scott Keffer [: 00:14:09

on his children, so the lord has compassion on those who fear him. I love this. For he himself knows your

Speaker C [: 00:14:15

Frame.

Scott Keffer [: 00:14:16

Frame. He's mindful that you're about dust. Do you ever feel like that? Absolutely. And then, like Yes. Yeah. Less dust as as the years and the miles go on. Right? I feel like this is like 80 dust, and you gotta Right. Ward Ward dust.

Scott Keffer [: 00:14:31

Ward dust. Yeah. Ward dust. He is mindful that you are but that's not love that as a father has compassion. And he gives us this picture in the prodigal son while he was still a long way off. That is such a cool picture. His father saw him and felt compassion. So god isn't isn't a a god without feeling.

Scott Keffer [: 00:15:00

How does that work? I don't know. But he has he feels compassion. We see it in his son, and the father who seems to be far off is not at all May seem far off. Right? It's not at all. He feels compassion. Right? And scripture says, blessed be the god and father of our lord Jesus Christ reminding us not only if you're in in Christ, he is your god and father, and he is the father of mercies and the god of all comfort. He is the father of mercies and the god of all comfort. Why do I need mercies? Mercies because I fall often.

Scott Keffer [: 00:15:45

Righteous man falls the 7 times. Right? So he says to him, if you then Jesus said, if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more how much more how much more he's saying? So get that. He's saying you so if you who struggle or sinful, you know how to get good gifts. How much more shall your father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him? A father who gives good gifts. I love that. He's a gift giver. He's a gift giver. He loves to give good gifts.

Scott Keffer [: 00:16:26

And he reminds us in James 117, every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is

Speaker C [: 00:16:33

is

Scott Keffer [: 00:16:33

from the father, coming down from the father of lights. And this is really important, really important. Because it's likely, if you think about your your father, there may be times when you didn't know what to expect. He was gonna be a certain way. There's gonna be another. Don't know, if you had anybody involved with drugs or alcohol or any of that kind of stuff. You just didn't know what the heck was going on. He's saying, no.

Scott Keffer [: 00:16:59

This father had no variation. He's the father of light. There's no darkness in him, and he doesn't change. There's no variation. There's no shifting shadow. There's no darkness to him. You don't have to go and wonder, what's he gonna be like today? What's he gonna be like? There's no shifting shadow in this father. No variation.

Scott Keffer [: 00:17:21

Isn't that cool? And he said, all are being led by the spirit of God. These are sons of God. The spirit of God is a, a proof that you are a son of the almighty. For you've not received the spirit of slavery. What's slavery lead to? Fear. Fear. Am I really? Am I really? How often have you thought that? Yeah. That comes from the enemy.

Scott Keffer [: 00:17:46

Am I really? So you don't have that, but you've received the spirit of adoption as sons. What does that spirit cry out within you? Abba father, not daddy. I don't know where that came from. It doesn't mean daddy. Jesus would never say daddy. It would maybe papa. It's a mature it's not a child. It's not a 3 year old daddy.

Scott Keffer [: 00:18:11

It's a more like a mature young adult who would say papa father. Right? Abba father. Knowing that I am a son. Right? It's it's this idea of full knowledge and the connection. The spirit himself testifies with our spirit. So it's a a papa father. I just say papa father. A papa father with whom there is no fear.

Scott Keffer [: 00:18:36

He's a papa father. He's a he he it's it's childlike, but not childish. Does that make sense? It's childlike, but not childish. The scripture tells us he deals with us as with sons. What son is there of whom the father does not discipline? So discipline literally means tutorage. The god trains us, he educates us, he trains us, and he disciplines us for our good. Yeah. So a father who trains you up.

Scott Keffer [: 00:19:10

He is a father who trains you up in order to what? Share. Share in his holiness. So he does the things that cultivate our soul. There said, cultivate the soul by correcting mistakes and curving fashions, instruction to increase virtue, and chastening. We need from time to time. God's good chastening. And he said, our father is in our father who art in heaven. I love that.

Scott Keffer [: 00:19:39

So there's there's great truths in there. First of all, he's not just your father. He's our father. He's all of our father. Right? We're part of a earthly family, part of a heavenly family. Our father who are in heavens. And he said, our lord god, behold, thou hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and by thy by thy thy nostrade. What's too difficult for you? Nothing.

Scott Keffer [: 00:20:04

Nothing. A father who is in heaven for whom nothing is too difficult. Being an earthly father who cares but can't do anything about it. Right? He is the father for whom nothing is difficult. And then he said, beloved, now we are children of God. It has not appeared as yet what we shall be like. What will she what are we gonna be like? Since we know that when he appears, we shall be like him. What? What? Because we shall see him as he is.

Scott Keffer [: 00:20:35

A father who will make you like him. A father who will make you like him. So children who will be like their father, which means for eternity, just as he says to his son, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. He will look at you for eternity and say, well pleased, Well pleased. Well pleased. Not I say, do you stay over there and get out of my way, leave me alone? But come close. Well pleased. How will that be? For eternity, you will be made like him.

Scott Keffer [: 00:21:11

So he beckons us. He says, so child, so child, give thanks to the father, who's qualified as to share in the inheritance often. Give thanks to the father often. It's easy to forget to stand back and take a breath and think that the God of the universe, the one who spoke all things in, the one who was, who is, and who was, and who was to come, the one who created all things by his will and by his power is also your father. Is that stunning? So what do I have to worry about? I love this. Ray Horton said, the greatest glory of God, therefore, is not that he's separate, and he's far beyond us. Right? Because if you you know, the Christians are afraid to study the Old Testament because they don't see Jesus, and they don't understand God the father. But if you go through there, you'll see who he is, his heart and his his passion, but you'll see his power.

Scott Keffer [: 00:22:01

He shows his power. And you it's hard for us to think that God, who is that powerful, said there is it's it's tempestuous in his presence. Like, his power is just like, woah. That that god would be accessible, that that god would be your father, that the glorious, mighty, holy, right, separate god is now not, in that sense, right far from you. He's close to you. He said, father, right, come near me as a child. He says the greatest glory the greatest glory of God is that the one who is separate and far beyond us, who's high and lifted up, who created all things and needs nothing, and also chose to become our father, lovingly adopting us as his children forever. There is nothing that should give you greater comfort in the uncertain world in which we live than the fact that God is our father.

Scott Keffer [: 00:22:59

You are his, eternally. So he says, see how great the love, a love that the the father has bestowed on us. He's done what? He's stowed it upon us. He set his love upon you so that we would be called children of God. So he says, trust God and his love for you. What kind of love? So he said, he did not spare his own son. How will he not also with him freely give you all things? He's a father. There is nothing he will withhold from you that you need.

Scott Keffer [: 00:23:30

I love this in Colossians. Paul says, for this reason, I bow my knees before the father. So I put go to your heavenly father often. Go to your heavenly father often.

Speaker C [: 00:23:42

Bow

Scott Keffer [: 00:23:42

your knees. Draw near to him. Hello. This is doctor Pindell. I said the only person who dares wake up the king at 3 AM for a bath of water is job and the king's job. Right? Isn't that a great picture? We have that kind of access. Isn't that a good picture? That's who we are. So he says, oh, my child.

Scott Keffer [: 00:24:01

Right? Cry out to me. He beckons you. Call to me. Call to me.

Speaker C [: 00:24:06

Call to me.

Scott Keffer [: 00:24:07

So we give thanks. We trust his love, and we go to him often. Alright. Write down an insight to God, the God who calls himself father. Insight to God who calls himself father. And that everything we yearn for and didn't get from our father was more is more than available with our heavenly father. Everything we yearn for, long for, desire, need. Right? Not here.

Scott Keffer [: 00:24:36

It's in him. We find in him. Everything. Everything in him. Yeah. The the the pain, because we all, in some form, have wounds from our Yeah. You know, from our growing up, and he fills those heels. Yeah.

Scott Keffer [: 00:24:50

Yeah. He's a so so you can see it. Yeah. That they're broken. Yeah. They're broken just like so we went through, Bill Gothard's seminar, and the Lord convicted me. And my dad and I my my parents got divorced, and so my dad and I were just had no relationship. So the lord convict me to call him up.

Scott Keffer [: 00:25:08

We met in Erie, Pennsylvania. He drove from Buffalo, New York. I drove, you know, from here, and I thought, why am I doing this, Lord? Why am I doing this? And I went in there, and I had to ask my I thought my dad had done all this. He did this to my mom and all this stuff. And Lord said, no. You need to go and ask for forgiveness. And I went up there, and I I just asked him for forgiveness. My dad, Maureen, he didn't know what to do.

Scott Keffer [: 00:25:32

Mhmm. But he he didn't say it didn't matter. And to my dad, that was acknowledging that was the case. And we didn't have a great relationship, but it was enough. And so our kids were able to have a relationship with him. And, God God heals and gives you a chance to forgive because he had his own brokenness. My dad has his own issues. And when you experience his mercies and his comfort and his grace and his love, it's what sustains us through the day and gives us the the ability to reach out and show at least some of that, least little specks of that to other people not perfectly, but we show a little respect, and we say, I know one who has a perfect love.

Scott Keffer [: 00:26:14

He has a perfect love that is unchanging and internal, and you can trust in it. So, Jack, would you close this in prayer, please?

Speaker C [: 00:26:23

Maybe the weekend thought about it is Thanksgiving Day. Every day is thanksgiving day. We thank you for, giving us this opportunity to share the hard scraps of wisdom and and to, equip us to to better serve you by filling in gaps that may be, left open by fathers and by the lack of fathers. Help us to, execute those responsibilities you would have us take when the opportunity presents themselves. Thank you for, Scott, his diligence, and subheading, obviously, between this way. And we, pray for peace, and then we we pray for, the peace that passes all understanding as we know that you who you are and what you've given to us. Whether it's even if it's through a flawed human examples of, what you are and what you can't do. So thank you for this time.

Speaker C [: 00:27:20

We thank you for giving us, your scraps of wisdom each day. Help us to hunger after them more and to, seek you each day and to pass along what we know of you to others. We pray this all in Jesus' precious name. Amen.

Scott Keffer [: 00:27:38

And may God, the father of the Lord Jesus Christ, may he bless you. May he keep you. May he cause his face to shine upon you. May he grant you his shalom deep in your soul. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you now and always. Amen. Amen.

Scott Keffer [: 00:27:59

Thanks for listening.

Speaker C [: 00:28:00

I hope you

Scott Keffer [: 00:28:00

have greater hope, assurance, and confidence in your life and a deeper trust in the God of the bible and his son, Jesus Christ. Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you his peace, his shalom in your soul and in your life. Until next time, may god bless you and keep you.