Building God’s Kingdom #11: Knowing God as Father, Not Living as Orphans

Building Gods Kingdom #11 is a Father’s Day message about the one relationship every kingdom builder needs: knowing God as Father. The pastor teaches that believers are made kings and priests who reign on the earth under God’s direction, but no one can reign while living like an orphan. Jesus is the mediator who brings us to the Father, and the Father is our destination. This message continues from Building God’s Kingdom #9: Women in the Church, Corinth, Ephesus and Biblical Submission.

Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps for receiving God as your Father this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message from NTC Ministries was posted on June 19, 2025, as part of the series on building the kingdom of heaven. The pastor opens by saying he will talk not about Father’s Day as such, but about fathers. He follows the three Sundays the church had just spent on women in Scripture and in ministry, and he closes by praying over the men and women of the church.

The flow runs from Jesus’ promise to build His church, through our call to reign as kings and priests, to the crisis of fatherlessness, the revelation of the Father in Ephesians 3 and John 17, and finally Job as a model of fatherhood.

Building Gods Kingdom God’s Way

The series rests on Matthew 16:18. After Peter’s revelation that Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus said He would build His church on that revelation and the gates of Hades would not prevail against it. Many people, the pastor says, think church is simply where we go on Sunday, but that is the building. The church is the called-out people.

He connects it to the word basilica, which he explains means a hall of kings. Jesus returns with “King of kings and Lord of lords” written on His robe and thigh (Revelation 19:16), and the church is where kings gather to have wounds mended and receive direction, inspiration and guidance for the battle.

Everything God builds comes with instructions. Moses could not build the tabernacle any way he liked, and Noah could not build the ark any way he wanted; God gave exact plans. The church is no different. This matters because Scripture warns of a great shaking in the earth and the heavens, when everything that can be shaken will be removed and only what is built right will remain (Hebrews 12:26–27).

Building Gods kingdom starts with knowing what the Bible is about. The whole Bible, he says, is about a King, a kingdom and a royal family. Jesus is King of kings, and Revelation 5:10 says He has made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth. Psalm 115:16 adds that the heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth He has given to the children of men.

So the pastor challenges a familiar saying. God is not in control in the sense of micromanaging everything; He wants to be in charge. We come to Him, get direction, and then go and rule under His authority. That does not mean controlling people, which he calls witchcraft. It means taking authority over circumstances in the name of Jesus, starting with being born again, because without that no one can even see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).

Kings and Priests Who Learn to Receive

Jesus represented the kingdom of heaven on earth, and He said He did only what He saw the Father do (John 5:19). That is the key, the pastor says: we need an intimate relationship with the Father. Many people think Jesus is the destination, but there is one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). He brings us to the Father.

The whole kingdom, he explains, runs on gifts. God gave Adam all the works of His hands before Adam did anything. Adam handed it over to the deceiver, and God gave His only begotten Son to get it back (John 3:16). Even faith is a gift: by grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves (Ephesians 2:8–9).

The central verse is Romans 5:17: those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life. Our responsibility, the pastor says, is to receive. The law got in the way because it depended on human performance. Jesus fulfilled it and took it away, so now we simply receive by grace.

He adds that many Christians have nothing to give because they never learned to receive. Jesus said, “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). He likens believers to a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old (Matthew 13:52). We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), and the key to living like heirs is God our Father.

The Crisis of Fatherlessness and the Need for a Father

“There’s nothing more important in the Bible than the revelation of fatherhood,” the pastor says. It does not decide whether we go to heaven, but it decides whether we enjoy the life God purchased for us. Orphans, he explains, live beggarly, subpar lives, and believers who do not know the Father live the same way.

He then reads from David Blankenhorn’s 1996 book Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem, which said that 40 percent of American children would go to sleep in a home where their fathers did not live, and called fatherlessness the most harmful demographic trend of that generation. Nearly three decades later, the pastor cites a 2024 U.S. Census Bureau figure of 17.4 million children, nearly a quarter of all children, living without a biological, step or adoptive father at home.

He lists consequences he reads from that material, including greater risk of poverty, behavioral problems, school dropout and substance abuse. He then turns to material from the National Fatherhood Initiative on the other side of the story: when fathers are involved, children, mothers and fathers themselves all benefit, with stronger family ties and better well-being.

With humor, he admits that with four children he changed exactly three diapers and thanks God for his wife. He also shares that he sang to his children, read the Bible to them and declared promises over them while they were still in the womb. His point is that everyone needs a father, both physical and spiritual. In a time of shaking, the church needs pastors who will father, not hirelings told what to say.

Then comes the good news: even if you never knew your father, you can know God as Father intimately and personally. A real father does not give a child everything they want. He disciplines, stands his ground and builds substance into a child, especially patience. Jesus said, “By your patience possess your souls” (Luke 21:19), and James says to let patience have its perfect work, so you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing (James 1:4).

A Child of God Living Like an Orphan

The main text is Ephesians 3:8–15. Paul, who was caught up to the third heaven and heard things not lawful to utter (2 Corinthians 12:2–4), was given grace to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. The mystery, the pastor explains, is not something we cannot know; it is something we get to know once we come in by being born again.

Through the church, the manifold wisdom of God is to be made known to principalities and powers in heavenly places. That is why Paul says, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” The word for family, he teaches, is patria, from the word for father. The church is a fatherhood.

That is also how he reads Jesus’ teaching not to call anyone on earth your father (Matthew 23:9). It is not about the word dad; it means giving no one total power over your life. He quotes Derek Prince: “You can be a child of God yet live like an orphan.” In 45 years of ministry, he says, he has seen it again and again: Christians anxious about what they will eat and how they will get things done.

Jesus answered that anxiety in Matthew 6:25–29. The birds do not store food in barns, and even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like the lilies, yet your Father takes care of them. Knowing the Father brings confidence, and fear loses its place.

The pastor remembers a little girl in his second-grade class, a refugee from the Korean War adopted by a local family. They gave her all she wanted to eat, yet they kept finding food hidden under her pillows, in her shoes and in boxes. She still lived like an orphan. Israel did the same with the manna, hoarding it out of fear until it bred worms and stank (Exodus 16:16–30). Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17).

Peter shows the opposite. After fishing all night and catching nothing, he told Jesus he knew his trade, but said, nevertheless, at Your word he would let down the net, and the catch filled two boats (Luke 5:4–7). Knowing God as Father means trusting His word above our own experience, because no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11).

The Father Is Our Destination

The purpose of redemption, the pastor teaches, is to bring us to know God as Father. In John 14:6–7 Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus is not the destination; He is the way. He also said that no one can snatch us from His hand or the Father’s hand (John 10:28–29). We are in the hand of Jesus, who is in the hand of the Father, so there is nothing to fear.

Ephesians 2:18–19 says that through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father, and we are members of the household of God. The pastor warns against the opposite error of claiming you must know the Father before you can know Jesus. We hold to Jesus and let Him keep introducing us to the Father. In prayer, he says, he spends time with the Father, lets the Holy Spirit lead him, and bows his knee to Jesus as King.

You are a child of God, not a servant, he stresses; God even gave His angels to serve His children. The climax of this revelation is Jesus’ prayer in John 17:26: “I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” After the resurrection, Jesus told Mary Magdalene, “I am ascending to My Father and your Father” (John 20:17).

Revelation shows where the journey ends. The 144,000 have the Father’s name written on their foreheads (Revelation 14:1), and His servants shall see His face, with His name on their foreheads (Revelation 22:3–4). The pastor reads it as a picture of total intimacy with the Father.

He contrasts Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:3–7). Abel’s offering thanked God for what He had done; Cain’s said, look what I did for You. Giving from our own sweat, he says, is why some wonder why God has not poured out a blessing too great to receive (Malachi 3:10). Water baptism, too, is not a show of what we do but yielding to the Father’s government.

Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14–19 asks that we know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. The pastor teaches that the Greek behind passes pictures a ball thrown farther than you have ever thrown it. When we relate to God as Father and obey what He says, as Peter did with the nets, we gain an understanding beyond our own and are filled with all the fullness of God.

Job: A Father as Prophet, Priest and King

The pastor closes the teaching with Job, whom he calls the first book of the Bible to be written. Job, he says, displays the three ministries Jesus fulfilled, and together they show what our heavenly Father is like and what earthly fathers are called to be. The table below follows his reading.

As priest, Job sanctified his children and offered sacrifices continually in case they had sinned (Job 1:5). The pastor says sacrifice must have purpose; that is why Jesus warned not to cast pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6). As prophet, Job declared in Job 19:25–27 that in his flesh he would see God.

As king, in Job 42:12–15, he named his three daughters, Jemimah, Keziah and Keren-Happuch, while none of his seven sons is named, and gave them an inheritance among their brothers, which daughters did not normally receive. Knowing God as Father reveals the same heart, the pastor says. He is no respecter of persons; all are heirs, all can minister, and there are no lesser members in His family. He recalls Psalm 68:11, where a great company proclaimed the word.

Receiving God as Father This Week

Fathers, the pastor says, must accept their God-given role, humble themselves under God’s mighty hand (1 Peter 5:6), trust His grace and be diligent. Even as a grandfather, he works to let his grandchildren know him. Young people are to honor father and mother so it may go well with them (Ephesians 6:2–3). Here are practical steps drawn from this building Gods kingdom message:

• Practice receiving. Thank God for His grace, righteousness and faith as gifts, rather than trying to earn them.
• Spend time with the Father. In prayer, let Jesus bring you into the Father’s presence and listen.
• Drop the orphan habits. Notice where fear makes you hoard or strive, and trust your Father’s care instead.
• Obey beyond your experience. Like Peter, act on His word even when your own knowledge says otherwise.
• Father the next generation. Pray, read Scripture and declare God’s promises over children and grandchildren.
• Build patience. Let patience have its perfect work in you and in the children you raise.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Fathers and building the kingdom: Matthew 16
• 0:59 The basilica, a hall of kings
• 2:14 God gives instructions for everything He builds
• 3:13 Kings and priests who reign on the earth
• 4:22 God in charge, not in control
• 5:27 Jesus the mediator, not the destination
• 7:49 The kingdom runs on gifts
• 8:51 Romans 5:17: receive and reign
• 11:15 The revelation of fatherhood; Fatherless America
• 15:31 The benefits of involved fathers
• 19:40 Everyone needs a father
• 20:57 A father builds patience
• 23:24 Ephesians 3:8–15 and Paul’s apostleship
• 29:10 Every fatherhood named after the Father
• 31:37 A child of God living like an orphan
• 32:50 The refugee girl who hid food
• 36:42 Peter’s catch: nevertheless, at Your word
• 39:07 John 14: the way to the Father
• 42:48 A child, not a servant; John 17
• 46:33 My Father and your Father: John 20:17
• 49:10 Cain, Abel and offerings of thanksgiving
• 53:39 Love that passes knowledge
• 54:52 Job as prophet, priest and king
• 1:01:45 A father’s role, and closing prayer

Building God’s Kingdom Series

This message is part of a teaching series on building God’s kingdom at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:

• First message: Building God’s Kingdom #5: House Owners Who Hold the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven
• Previous: Building God’s Kingdom #9: Women in the Church, Corinth, Ephesus and Biblical Submission
• You are here: Building God’s Kingdom #11: Knowing God as Father, Not Living as Orphans
• Next: Building God’s Kingdom #12 — A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken

Frequently Asked Questions

What can someone do who never knew their earthly father?

The pastor calls this good news. Whoever you are, even if you never had a father or did not know him, you can know God intimately and personally as your Father. Jesus came to reveal Him and to bring you to Him. Through Jesus you have access by one Spirit to the Father, and you become part of the household of God, a child rather than a servant or an orphan.

Why does the pastor say the church needs fathers, not hirelings?

He teaches that in a time of shaking, fatherhood stabilizes lives in the church. A hireling is told by people what to say and what to do. A pastor who fathers brings the strength of God and His kingdom into the midst, even when that means confronting problems, as Paul did with Timothy at Ephesus and with Corinth. Standing in truth, he says, is how the church wins.

Is the father’s role only for men with children at home?

No. The pastor says everyone needs a father, both physical and spiritual, and he speaks to every stage of life. He is a grandfather working to let his grandchildren know him. He asks young men and women to honor their parents, and he prays for men to take the lead in declaring God to their families, while all, men and women, share equally in the Father’s inheritance.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• Matthew 16:18 — I will build My church
• Revelation 5:10 — kings and priests
• Romans 5:17 — receive and reign in life
• Ephesians 3:8–15 — every family named after the Father
• Ephesians 3:14–19 — the love that passes knowledge
• John 14:6–7 — the way to the Father
• Ephesians 2:18–19 — access to the Father
• John 17:26 — I have declared Your name
• Job 42:12–15 — Job’s daughters receive an inheritance

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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