Our heavenly Father is not a taskmaster waiting for you to earn His kindness; He is a generous Father who wants to give. In this third message of the series, the pastor teaches that Jesus came as the mediator to show people who the Father really is, and that grace means unearned favor. Religion reads the Bible as a list of things to do. The kingdom reads it as the story of a Father who loves His family and rewards, prunes, provides for and blesses His children.
This message continues from Our Heavenly Father #2 — Every Fatherhood Named After God. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, the Scriptures behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps for knowing God as your Father this week.
Sermon at a Glance
This message was posted on October 7, 2025, as part three of an eight-part series at NTC Ministries. It runs about 63 minutes and was preached to the church in the auditorium and to listeners following online and by local radio. It ends with an invitation to give your life to a loving Father.
The pastor moves from Jesus as mediator, through the parable of the two sons, to five pictures of the Father: kind, rewarding, in charge, pruning for fruit and providing for every need.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | The pastor of NTC Ministries (not named in the recording) |
| Series | Our Heavenly Father (part 3 of 8) |
| Main text | 2 Corinthians 13:14, John 14:6, Ephesians 1:5 |
| Key theme | Grace as unearned favor from a Father who loves to give |
| Length | About 63 minutes |
Kingdom Faith Looks to Jesus
The foundation for the series is 2 Corinthians 13:14: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” The pastor connects it to the series he had just finished on kingdom faith. Kingdom faith, he says, is not faith for a new car or faith for a particular outcome. It is faith in someone.
That someone is Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). When we look to Him, Psalm 34:5 says, our faces are radiant and never ashamed. There is no condemnation on the face of someone who is looking at Jesus, because He is our all in all.
The communion of the Holy Spirit, he explains, is a common union, the same Greek word as fellowship. Only those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God (Romans 8:14), and the Holy Spirit and the Word always agree. The Spirit will never tell you anything contrary to Scripture, which is why John says to test the spirits, because not all of them are from God (1 John 4:1).
In John 15:26, Jesus says the Comforter will come from the Father and testify of Him. Jesus was sent by the Father, the Holy Spirit is given by the Father, and everything is meant to bring us to the Father. That is why, the pastor says, we need to grow in revelation of our heavenly Father.
Natural fathers miss things; a dad can promise to be at the ball game and then be prevented. Our Father in heaven can be counted on completely. Ephesians 2:7 says it will take the ages to come to show us the exceeding riches of His grace. Whatever you know of God, He is greater than that, and you could never exaggerate how good He is.
Jesus the Mediator Reveals the Father
Grace, the pastor teaches, means unearned favor. We earn nothing from God; He simply wants to give, and the whole kingdom is about giving gifts. 1 Timothy 2:3–5 says God our Savior desires all men to be saved, and there is one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.
He explains that the word mediator means reconciler. He shares that he is certified as a mediator. A mediator listens to two people with very different frames of thought and helps each one see what the other is thinking so they can come to agreement. Jesus, Emmanuel, came to do exactly that between God and a humanity steeped in corruption and law.
So Jesus kept saying, “You’ve heard it’s been said, but I’m telling you.” People were working hard for God and trying to please Him, but they had taken what God gave them and missed who He is. In John 5:39 Jesus told the religious leaders that they searched the Scriptures thinking they had life in them, when the Scriptures pointed to Him.
It is work to be spiritual, he says, but he defines the work. Hebrews 4:9–11 says there remains a rest for the people of God, so we labor to enter that rest. It is not blood, sweat and tears. God’s hands are tied when we try to work for what He wants to give. Knowing He wants to give to you is what pleases Him.
That is also why, he says, the Bible sometimes says “Jesus Christ” and sometimes “Christ Jesus.” As he teaches it, “Jesus Christ” describes the relationship moving from man to God, and “Christ Jesus” describes it moving from God to man, because Jesus is the mediator standing between the two.
The Older Brother and the Problem With Religion
The pastor compares the priests of Jesus’ day to the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32). The younger son demanded his inheritance and left. When he came to his senses and came home, the father ran to him, put shoes on his feet, a ring on his finger and a robe on his back, and killed the fatted calf for a party. That, the pastor says, is God.
He adds that God is still a just God, and that judgment begins at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17–18). But the older son, working in the field, heard the party and refused to go in. He told his father he had worked and worked and never been given a party. The father answered, “Son, I’ve always been with you,” and everything he had was already his. That, the pastor says, was the problem with religion then and is the problem with religion today.
He loves the story of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11–15). Her husband was gone and now her only son had died, leaving her destitute. Jesus came around the corner with His company, told the young man to get up, and the funeral turned into a celebration. Jesus came to introduce the Father.
The table below follows how the pastor contrasts the two sons with the Father’s heart in this message.
| Figure | Mindset as taught | The Father’s response |
|---|---|---|
| Younger son | “Give me my inheritance, I’m out of here” | Gives it, then runs to embrace him when he returns |
| Older son | Work, labor, and still “nothing here” | “I’ve always been with you”; it was always his |
| Religious leaders | Read Scripture as rules to keep | Jesus shows them who the Father really is |
| Believers today | Invited to rest and receive | Grace, unearned favor, poured out freely |
Our Heavenly Father Is Kind and Rewards
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Jesus is the only way, and the destination is the Father. Love created us, and family is the one place where love can keep expressing itself even when relationships get strained.
He illustrates with his own family, which he calls a mess. One sister was at odds with everyone, so wherever he was in the world he mailed her a birthday card and a Christmas card. One day two sisters came to stay, and on the last morning, over coffee on the porch, she asked what he teaches. He shared the kingdom of heaven for a couple of hours while they cried. She said, “I want Jesus,” and both sisters gave their lives to Christ.
Ephesians 1:5 says God predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will. He recalls a Bible college instructor in Dallas teaching that God created man because He was lonely. The Holy Spirit told him that was not so and gave him Malachi 3:6, where the Lord says He does not change. God is love (1 John 4:8), and love needs an object to express itself. He created you to love you.
Isaiah 1:18–20 invites, “Come now, and let us reason together.” God makes scarlet sins white as snow; our part is to be willing to accept His goodness. It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance (Romans 2:4), and repentance simply means changing the way you think.
Jesus told His disciples to ask the Father in His name so their joy may be full (John 16:23–24), because “the Father Himself loves you” (John 16:27). He who began a good work in you will complete it (Philippians 1:6), and through Him we have access by one Spirit to the Father as members of His household (Ephesians 2:17–19).
Our heavenly Father is kind. In Matthew 5:43–48, He sends rain on the just and the unjust. Be perfect, Jesus says, and perfect means complete. You cannot do that yourself; you look to Jesus to perfect what concerns you. The pastor tells of a man who phoned him drunk at one in the morning asking why he could not quit. “Quit trying,” he told him, and just thank Jesus that He is dealing with it. Soon the desire was gone.
A smoker had the same struggle. The pastor explained the law of the mind: whatever you keep thinking about grows, so constantly telling himself he had to quit kept him smoking. A month after he started thanking Jesus instead, the desire was gone.
Our heavenly Father also rewards. In Matthew 6:1–4, Jesus says not to make a show of your giving. If all you want is a thank-you or a newspaper photo, that is your whole reward. Give in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Reward, the pastor says, means recognition of service. For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things (Romans 11:36).
The Father Is the Vinedresser
The Father calls the shots, the pastor says. He has the plan and knows your future, so it is wise to obey Him. He recalls the first time the Lord told him to give $10,000 to a ministry while he was at a ministers’ meeting. He gave what he had on him and came home near midnight to tell Pam. She simply said she would send the rest in the morning, no questions asked.
Giving, he explains, is God preparing your future, like planting more corn so the harvest will pay for a new tractor. Give, and it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over (Luke 6:38).
In John 15:1–8, Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” Every fruitful branch He prunes so it bears more fruit. The pastor describes a scruffy, diseased apple tree on the old farm property they bought. Pam said to cut it down; he cut it back by a third instead. The next year it bushed out with big, bright, red apples. That, he says, is what the Father’s pruning does.
Abiding is how fruit comes. Jesus was faithful over God’s house, with more glory than Moses, as the builder has more honor than the house (Hebrews 3:1–6). Some say they worship God out fishing or golfing. You can, the pastor says, but God must be worshiped in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), and we are told not to forsake assembling together (Hebrews 10:25).
If you abide in Him and His words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it will be done. That is a kingdom promise, not permission for lust. When the Father’s love fills you, greed and comparison lose their grip, and Paul bowed his knees to the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named (Ephesians 3:14–15). By this the Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit.
Our Heavenly Father Provides All Our Needs
The last point, which the pastor calls the intro to the next part, is that our heavenly Father provides all our needs. In Matthew 6:26–34, Jesus points to the birds, which neither sow nor reap, and the lilies, which neither toil nor spin. Your heavenly Father feeds and clothes them. Will He not much more clothe you? You just need to know God loves you.
Seasons of lack hurt, he explains, because our roots are still in what he calls the earth curse system. John the Baptist said the axe is laid to the root of the trees (Matthew 3:10), and God wants that root out of you. You cannot lust for more than God wants to give you. So seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added.
Adam lost everything believing the devil’s lie; Jesus, the second Adam, came to tell the truth about the Father. He who did not spare His own Son will freely give us all things (Romans 8:32).
He closes the point with a testimony. In a recession in the early 1980s in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, with a mortgage at 14.5 percent interest, he ran out of work and out of fuel oil. He drained fuel from his construction trucks to get through two months. Then a nurse hired him to paint her kitchen and asked him to remove an old 250-gallon fuel drum unused for 25 years.
He and Pam had already thanked the Lord for His care, and the Lord had given him the verse about the birds. He expected a few gallons but ended up with 70, enough to last until he was working again. “That’s your heavenly father,” he says.
Living as Children of the Father
Your strength is not your education, your wit, your money or your abilities, the pastor says. They are good, but whatever you lean on most is your real god. Trust in the Lord, lean not on your own understanding, and He will direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5–6). Growth is a process, like mastering one instrument by daily practice. Practical steps from this message:
- Change the way you think. Read Scripture to discover who the Father is, not only what you must do.
- Labor to enter His rest. Replace striving with trust that He wants to give to you.
- Thank Him for what He is changing. Instead of fighting a habit, thank Jesus every day that He is dealing with it.
- Give in secret. Let your Father reward you rather than seeking recognition from people.
- Welcome His pruning. When He cuts something back, expect more fruit to follow.
- Stay in the assembly. Worship in spirit and in truth together with His family.
He closes by inviting anyone who has never given their life to a loving Father to do so. God rewards those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6), and Jesus said that if we love Him we will keep His commandments (John 14:15), not in our own strength but in His.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 Opening prayer and 2 Corinthians 13:14
- 1:03 Kingdom faith is faith in Jesus
- 4:04 A Father you can count on
- 5:19 Grace and the one mediator
- 9:03 Labor to enter His rest
- 10:05 The two prodigal sons
- 12:05 A funeral turns into a party
- 13:14 John 14:6: the way to the Father
- 15:26 His sisters come to Christ
- 18:14 Ephesians 1:5: adopted in love
- 23:04 Isaiah 1: let us reason together
- 30:32 Our heavenly Father is kind
- 32:48 Freedom from drinking and smoking
- 34:56 Our heavenly Father rewards
- 39:04 The Father calls the shots
- 41:07 The vine, the vinedresser and the apple tree
- 45:10 Abiding and worshiping together
- 49:25 Our heavenly Father provides
- 53:56 The fuel oil drum testimony
- 57:32 Your strength is not your education
- 1:00:49 Invitation to a loving Father
Our Heavenly Father Series
This message is part three of an eight-part teaching series at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:
- First message: Our Heavenly Father #1: An Introduction to the Fatherhood of God
- Previous: Our Heavenly Father #2 — Every Fatherhood Named After God
- You are here: Our Heavenly Father #3: Grace, the Mediator and the Father’s Generous Heart
- Next: Our Heavenly Father #4: Jesus the Mediator and the Way to the Father
Frequently Asked Questions
Did God create people because He was lonely?
No. The pastor recalls hearing that idea in Bible college and sensing the Holy Spirit correct it, pointing him to Malachi 3:6, where God says He does not change. If God had been lonely, nothing He created would have fixed it. Instead, God is love, and love needs an object for its expression. He created us so He could keep expressing His love to a family.
Is it wrong to worship God outdoors instead of at church?
The pastor agrees you can worship God while fishing, hunting or golfing. But he points to Jesus’ words that the Father seeks worship in spirit and in truth, not only in spirit, and to the instruction not to forsake assembling together. Gathering is where believers learn about the kingdom, the Father, the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit as a family.
Why does he say infant baptism alone “don’t mean nothing”?
His point is that a ceremony performed for you is not the same as personally giving your life to God. Being baptized as a baby or going through confirmation, he says, does not replace committing your own life to a loving Father. God rewards those who diligently seek Him, so he invites every listener to pray and make that commitment for themselves.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- 2 Corinthians 13:14 — the foundation verse of the series
- 1 Timothy 2:3–5 — one mediator between God and men
- Luke 15:11–32 — the father and his two sons
- John 14:6 — the way to the Father
- Ephesians 1:5 — adopted as sons
- Matthew 6:1–4 — the Father who sees in secret
- John 15:1–8 — the vine and the vinedresser
- Matthew 6:26–34 — the Father feeds and clothes
- Romans 8:32 — He will freely give us all things
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
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