Today on bold steps, Mark and his son Josiah team up to share an important Father's Day message about the power of a father's blessing.
Lavish affection makes someone feel like I belong to this. When there's a lack of physical affection, then you start feeling there's something wrong with me. Something that is unacceptable about who I am. Therefore, there's little affection towards me.
And welcome to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Mark is president of Moody Bible Institute and senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. I'm Wayne Shepherd. Well, Mark, coming up this weekend is Father's Day, of course, and for many, we'll be honoring our dads. But there are also a lot of listeners for whom the word father doesn't evoke happy feelings. So you're going to talk both about what it means to live in the blessing or the vacuum of not having a father present.
Yeah, Wayne, you know the scripture talks about Father God. Typically, we expect that that would just invoke these warm feelings of a protective father. But for so many in our generation, it does not. There's a vacuum there. And this message is really about what it means to convey the father's blessing, especially if you've never received it. And so there's a whole generation of fathers that because of absentee fathers or divorce or whatever the circumstances, that have never really felt
the power of blessing. And if you've never really experienced the power of blessing, sometimes when it's your turn to give it, it's challenging. I believe that every father can give the power of the blessing, but they have to sort of experience it from their Heavenly father so that they can give it out. And so if you've been struggling with that, I think this would be a great message for you to listen to because you have the power to bless.
And it means a lot to you to give this message with Josiah, your son.
Absolutely. So when Josiah first started preaching with me, he had, uh, no kids. Uh, but now he's got three boys under three, so his hands are full. And it really is, uh, fun to be able to dual teach this message.
So with that said, let's dive into our message titled The Power of the blessing with Mark and Josiah Jobe.
There's a lot of confusion sometimes about blessing. Some people, if you ask, well, what's the blessing? They'll say, well, that's what we do before we eat a meal. We say the blessing. Some people say, well, that's what happens after you sneeze. Bless you. They think that's the blessing. So there's a lot of different ideas about what the blessing is. Sometimes it's hard to grasp. It's a little bit generic, ethereal. It's a little bit hard to pinpoint.
I heard two clergy that were having discrepancy about the blessing. Uh, one was a Catholic priest and one was a rabbi. And in order to save money, they had moved in together and bought a car together. And so one of them said to the other, hey, we need to bless our car. Yeah, that's a good idea. So the rabbi looked out the window one day, and he saw the Catholic priest sprinkling water on the car and, uh, speaking blessing over the car when he came in. He said,
what are you doing? He said, well, in my tradition, that's how we bless, you know, the sprinkling of the holy water. And then speaking blessing, he said, oh, okay. So the next day, the Catholic priest looked out the window and he saw the rabbi with a hacksaw, and he was sawing off the end of the tailpipe of his car. And he said, hey, what are you doing? He said, well, in my tradition, we circumcise. That's the blessing.
So he just was, uh. So there's a lot of understandings about blessing, and I'm not sure what your understanding of blessing is, but there is something powerful and compelling when you receive the blessing of the father. Amen. You know.
As we've we preached this message now twice as the third time we're preaching this message, this, this, um, this Sunday, what I've realized, and I'm so convinced of the power that is in blessing. I think one of the main problems that plagues people today is that so many people are functioning from a deficit of not having the blessing spoken into their life. And I think it creates this, this vacuum in their life that they need. We feel the need to try to, uh, have it filled and
all of these different illegitimate ways. And so we chase it. I can't tell you how many people, even after the service I talked to that said, that's exactly my story. I didn't have that. I wasn't blessed in that way. I didn't have somebody in my life that spoke into my life. And I believe that as we understand this, it will transform our life. So the idea behind blessing and the idea behind the word, the idea behind the Hebrew word, specifically in the Old Testament in Genesis chapter 24,
is the idea of bowing the knee. And in that culture, if you saw somebody that was a king or a royal dignitary, you would come before that person. You would bow your knee before that person, signifying and communicating to that person. This is someone that has a lot of value and worth. So when you choose to bless someone, you're acting in a way that shows that you value them.
You're choosing to do things, act in a way you say, this person that's in my life is somebody that has value, and this doesn't have to just be your children, even though we'll speak a lot from that lens today. This could be a spouse, a coworker, a boss. You say, I'm living in a way that I want you to understand. I'm blessing you. I'm living out a way that's saying you have value. Now, on the other end of that,
what is a curse? A curse. This word in the Hebrew literally means a trickle or a muddy stream caused by a dam or obstruction of to an upstream. This is the idea that when you curse somebody, it's when you cut off the things that are good to them so they can't experience it. And so in our store, in our life, each and every one of us has the listen to me has the power and the ability
to choose. Do I want to be a blessing to those around me where they are getting the good life and the value that I see in them, blessing them with the way that I'm living? Or do we want to be people that curse people? You may say, oh, I wouldn't say verbally, I'd curse them, but we curse them by withholding that which is good that they need in their life and what God has called us to do is bless people and be people of blessing and light.
And so we're going to talk really quickly about the four elements of how you say, how do I do it? I've never seen it. How you can bless people in your life.
You know, the Bible tells us that when God created man and woman, it says God created male and female. He created them in his image. The very first act of God was to bless. Blessing, as Pastor Josiah said, is the conveying of favor of goodness transferred from one person to the next. In 1986, there was two authors that co-authored a book called The Blessing Giving the Gift of Unconditional Love and Acceptance, John Trent and Gary Smalley
Only when they wrote this book. I was not yet a father, but I read it early on and it shaped some of my thinking. I'd never thought that much about the blessing until I read this book, and I was just about to become a father, just about to experience the birth of my children. And this was a powerful book that helped me want to make sure that, as a father, I was conveying the biblical, scriptural blessing to my children because it helped me realize how much
and how powerful the blessing is. There are four key elements to the blessing, as you see in Scripture, and we're going to be looking at Genesis 27 and Genesis 48, where you see two fathers that are conveying the blessing. The first element that I want you to be aware of is the element of meaningful touch and affection in Genesis chapter 27, you have Abraham's son Isaac blessing his
sons Jacob and Esau. And if you read in Genesis chapter 27, verse 26 and 27, the Bible says that he, as he blesses them, uh, he's actually, uh, comes near and kisses them and embraces them. In Genesis chapter 48, you see Jacob Blessing, uh, two of his grandsons, and it says Joseph brought his sons to him, and the father kissed them and embraced them. Can I tell you something? They have done studies. Long term studies about the effects
of affection towards our children. Appropriate affection. One study, one of the longest studies, was a 30 year study. They studied the effect of babies and toddlers that had received strong affection embrace, hugs, kisses, a lot of affection when they were young and as they grew up in as children, and the effects that they had on them as adults, they were wondering. And then they studied a second group that had received very little physical affection when they were young.
And this is the results of these studies, those that had received a lot of affection, physical affection from their parents, had higher self-esteem, improved academic performance, better parent child communication, and fewer psychological and behavioral problems. Those that had received less affection or very little affection, uh, struggled with lower self-esteem,
feelings of being alienated, hostility, aggressiveness, and antisocial behavior. What the study was realizing is that children, when they feel loved, embraced when there's high affection, demonstrated. Because what affection says is we're close. What affection says is you are loved. What affection says is you are mine. What affections demonstrates lavish affection makes someone feel like I belong to this. When there's a lack of physical affection, then you start
feeling there's something wrong with me. We're not that close. Maybe we're alienated here. And there's a sense of. There's probably something that is unacceptable about who I am. Therefore, there's little affection towards me. A father came up to me after one of our services, our first service, and he said to me, and he's in his probably his 50s now. He said, my father never, ever said, I love you until recently. He said, my father 70 years old. And when he said it to me, it shocked me.
There are some men in this auditorium that you grew up in, a culture that makes it hard for you to share affection. Some of you grew up with fathers that were a part of a culture and part of a generation where austerity and just being tough and not showing emotion was highly valued. But there are some men in this auditorium that you grew up wondering, am I a man? Am I accepted, am I valuable? Does my dad really care? And maybe he did care, but he
had difficulty expressing Affection. Verbally, physically. The hug, the embrace. I want to remind you that you have a powerful, powerful tool at your disposal. And that's the ability to show affection. By the way, this is not just true of your children. It's also true of your wife. If you're married, it's not good enough to say, I love you, honey. She needs your arm around her shoulder once in a while. She needs you to take her hand once in a while.
She needs that kiss in the morning. Once in a while. She needs to know that there's affection that you're showing towards her. She's probably already told you that. And I'm just reiterating that to you.
You're listening to the Bible teaching of Mark job and his son Josiah, and will continue this bold steps message titled The Power of the blessing, right after a quick break. If you haven't been to our website yet, we encourage you to visit and see all the faith building resources, opportunities, and sermon series we have available. Just go to Bold Steps. You can even have these daily lessons downloaded automatically to your phone or mobile device by subscribing to the Bold
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Mark Jobe. And if you'd like to get even more connected with us, and perhaps tell us a little about your testimony and how Bold Steps has played a part in your spiritual growth, we'd love to hear from you. You can send us a message online at Bold Steps. Org or through email Bold steps at Moody's. Or maybe give us a call and leave your message on a recorded line by dialing 312329 2011. 92011. Now let's get back into today's message. Here again is Mark Jobe.
I love, by the way, the story that draws my attention is in Mark chapter ten verse 14 through 16. Jesus was surrounded by a crowd of people that were pushing in to hear him. They wanted to be healed. They wanted to catch a look at him. And there's also small children that were coming and wanting to touch Jesus. The disciples, feeling like they were being good ushers, were keeping the children away. And when Jesus saw this, it says in Mark chapter ten verse 14, he was indignant.
In other words, he was surprised. Hey, don't do that. He said to them, let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Listen, I love this. This is Jesus, the Messiah, the God who's always had. He never had a beginning, never had an end. The God Almighty who was there when the heavens were created, the earth was formed, born of a supernatural, Immaculate conception, the
sinless Son of God. It says, and he took the children in his arms, put his hand on them, and blessed them. Amen. I love that first element of the blessing is the willingness to show meaningful affection. Let me close with this. Some of you were really good when your kids were babies. You hugged them, kiss their cheeks, embrace them, showed affection. But you became much more awkward
as they grew older. Let me tell you, your teenage, maybe even your adult sons and daughters still need the power of affection in their life.
You know, as I was studying this, this passage this week and preparing for this and also reading this book, the blessing that I had never read before, you know, I was so ministered to it myself. I'm trying to raise my boys well, and I'm really thinking about how can I really bless them and, and, you know, enable them.
And I realized as I was reading through the book and almost kind of going through the checklist in my mind that I was given an amazing example up close, because I feel like as I go through this passage and study what the blessing is, I was able to in my home and under my father and my mother's, you know, leadership and their love, able to experience every one of those in a healthy way, really. And I want to honor, you know, my father, my father in
that way. Because what I've learned, here's what I've learned in talking with so many people. What I've learned is oftentimes the people that we want to become, we don't we don't become because we default to what's behind us, and we grab back at whatever we've experienced, whatever we've grown up with and, and under, you know, under the new reality of the life that we have with God.
We have to choose to to to pull to what, you know, grab back to what God has now for us, not just what we've been raised with that may be dysfunctional or may be good. Right? The second step, really, or element of how to bless, is a spoken message that attaches high value. Part of the blessing, part of the way we bless people around us is not just by hugging them or kissing them on the cheek or holding their hand, but part of the way we bless
them is with the power of our words. Proverbs 1821 says, the tongue has the power of life and death. You know, I'm trying to teach my little son Saint right now, my two year old. I'm trying to teach him the value of words even from a young age. And one of the things he. I don't know how he learned it or why he says it, but every once in a while, even this morning, my son will go up to my. My other son who's in his jumper, and he'll go, go way Dallas. And so me and my
wife are being very clear. We don't want him to say that to his little brother. And so I've told him, I said, hey, Saint. We don't say that to our brother. We like our little brother. We say nice things to our little brother. We say things like, thank you, Dallas. And so then he goes, okay, thank you Dallas. Words matter. We can say things that build people up, that add value to their life, that encourage them when they're down.
And we can also use our tongue and our words to tear people down, break them down, and remove a lot of the value that God has already instilled in them as a child of God, or a creation of his.
Well, that's the voice of Josiah Jobe, Mark's son. And you're listening to Bold Steps, the Bible teaching of Mark Jobe. And today his son as well. Today's message is called the power of the blessing. And you can hear part two of this special Father's Day message right here tomorrow. So please keep listening. In the meantime, we encourage you to visit our website and check out all the special resources and opportunities we have available by going to Bold steps.org.
One resource we really encourage you to check out is this month's exclusive Bold Step gift. And to tell us more about it, Mark, we have the authors with us, Aaron and Jason Davis.
Jason, you mentioned in your book Lies Boys believe that one of the most harmful lies that boys can fall for is that reading the Bible just isn't for me. And in an age of declining biblical literacy, how can parents help their sons develop a love for God's Word and really want to read it?
I think that you're right on and it is a real issue. But an exciting thing is that searches for Bible related content have skyrocketed over the last several months. So I think there's a resurgence of interest in things of Scripture. But when we're dealing specifically with young men, I think that, yeah, it can be daunting, especially if they just randomly open up their Bible and it's a,
you know, numbers and they're just reading these chains of content. Uh, and that's important content, but it's probably more appropriate for somebody that has a better grasp on the full scripture. So where I think families should start is with something simple like lies, boys believe something to spark an interest in Scripture and then challenging their their son. Hey, did you read the Bible today? Did you can tell me about an adventure that Jesus had? Or tell me about, uh,
a challenge that Jesus faced. Tell me what the disciples were up to and make it relatable to story instead of just facts and figures. And boys will relate more to the story, especially when it involves adventure or challenges and overcoming those challenges.
And if I could just talk to the mom or the grandma listening. It looks different for our husbands and our sons, and it does for us. Uh, for me, it's a quiet morning with my Bible open and a cup of coffee nearby. I gather with a group of women in a circle every week, and for a long time I had that expectation for Jason, my husband, and my sons. And it looks different for them. Jason and I teach boys and girls Sunday school, so he teaches
the boys. I teach the girls. We're on the same hallway, and the girls literally are sitting quietly in a circle with their Bibles open, reading the verses out loud, and we can hear the boys all the way down the hall. I don't know what they're doing, but they're they're loud.
Jason.
Jason's taught me that it's important that those boys love church and that they walk out of Sunday school going, that was a great time. And they're getting the Bible, but it looks different than it does for us. And that's part of celebrating the differences between boys and girls. And so I just think as moms, we can sometimes have an expectation that our sons interactions with the word will be quiet and they will exegete with us and they will want to dialogue. And that just isn't always
how it happens. And they should have the freedom to explore the word in the ways that are meaningful to them.
Yeah, and I love that you're pointing out the differences with how boys and girls typically learn. There's always exceptions to that. But thank you so much. This is a great resource. I'm encouraged by the way. Uh, Jason, you mentioned that there's an uptick in biblical literacy. They say 22% sales of Bibles have gone up. And I'm also encouraged that we live in a season where there's an upsurge
also in young men going to church. And I do think that some of it has to do with the lies that they've been raised with, and they're looking for truth.
Absolutely. They'll find it in Scripture. They'll find that truth.
So let's get them started. Young lies, Boys Believe by Aaron and Jason. Thank you for this tool. I think it's going to be a blessing to a lot of families.
I'm sure it will be. And we want you to request your own copy today. When you give a gift of any amount to support this ministry, just call us at 800 Moody. Again, that's (800) 356-6639 or donate online and request the book when you go to Bold Steps. If it's easier, you can send your donation and request the book in the mail. Write to us at bold steps.
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out by phone by calling 800 Moody. I'm Wayne Shepherd, signing off for now, but be sure to join us again tomorrow for part two of our message on the power of the blessing. That's Friday on Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.