Today on Bold Steps, Mark and Josiah Jobe continue their powerful Father's Day message by speaking the blessing into the lives of others.
Part of the power of the blessing is to look at your children and to remind them that God has a future for them that you see in them what they don't see in themselves. Yet we can choose today to allow everybody that's around us to experience the blessing from our life, as we're filled with the love from Jesus Christ. Amen.
Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Mark is president of Moody Bible Institute, and he's the senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. My name is Wayne Shepherd. Yesterday, we began a special Father's Day message, where Mark was joined by his son, Josiah, to explore the biblical concept of blessing, particularly the The powerful impact of father's words and actions can have on their children. We learned about the importance of meaningful touch and affection as the first
component of conveying blessing. If you miss that first segment, I encourage you to visit our website, npr.org, to catch up. But right now, to continue the message and discover the similarity between Mark and his son Josiah's voices, here's the power of the blessing on bold steps.
And we see here in Genesis chapter 27 that Isaac blesses his son as an example to us. And it says, Isaac said, surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field. I've never said that to my son. Which the Lord has blessed. Let people serve you, and nations bow down to you. You know what Isaac was saying to his son and modeling to us here as parents and and anyone that can use the power of blessing, he was conveying value and security to his son when he says, A blessed field. This is the
idea of someone that has tremendous life and reward. He's saying, he's saying, he's basically saying, hey, you're going to be so successful, you'll smell like money. My dad has never said that to me either. He's saying, nations don't just bow down to anyone. Hey, my son, I want you to know that you are someone of worth and value. I don't want you to guess all throughout life, or be chasing it from all these other things in life.
My responsibility as a parent is to bless you and fill in that blank with words of life, to empower you to live a life of blessing. And so this is the responsibility of a parent. And, you know, in our home, um, you can my dad would many times do this verbally pull us aside and speak into our life words that were just so meaningful. But one of the practices that he showed us as well, and he did in our home, is he would write letters every once in a while to his children. And I actually
brought one from my little collection I have here. This is a letter that was written when I was in high school. And he would type these out and he would write us personalized letters speaking it. And I want you to hear it because I want to model to you and show you a great example for my father of adding value and blessing your children if you weren't raised in a home like that. November 22nd, 2009. Dear Josiah, I have been praying for you more intensely lately. I
know that life can be challenging in high school. That feels a long way away. This morning I preached about calling out the mighty warrior in our sons and daughters. I believe that God has some great things in store for your life. Do you hear it? Value from a parent. I believe that there will be a spiritual battle for your soul and destiny. I know that the enemy will
try to derail your life from fulfilling God's purposes. He will attack you even stronger when you are young, because he knows that you are still forming your identity and are more vulnerable. I believe that you are a man of God in the making. I see in you the heart of passionate and sensitive worshipper like King David. You have a sharp mind and an intuitive heart. Great communication skills and a very disarming way of relating to people. One day God will use all your gifts and talents
for his purpose and his glory. This is a father that got serious about saying, I'm going to bless my children in a biblical way, where they're not going to have any blanks, but they're going to know how their dad feels about them. And you say.
Well, yeah, that's because you were raising Josiah and he was a good kid. But, you know, when your kids are teenagers, sometimes you think they're going to change the world. Other times you think they're going to end up in prison. So, uh, it depends on the day and their mood, But I do believe that as parents, and since it's Father's Day, let me just challenge the fathers. There is no one fathers that can speak the words of influence like you can.
There's no substitute for you, fathers. Your words have impact. So we have the expression of physical affection. The second element of the blessing is words of affirmation. And the third aspect of the blessing is a picture of a
special future. So not only are you letting them know that they're loved, not only are you saying letting them know the value that they have by the words that you speak into them, but you're also helping your children understand that you believe that they have a significant future, that they have a purpose in their life, that there is a forward momentum in their life. And you see it if you look at, uh, for example, Genesis chapter 48.
Jacob named Israel. He's speaking over his two grandsons. And he says, May the people of Israel bless each of you by saying, God make you as prosperous as Ephraim and Manasseh. He was speaking into his grandsons, and he was saying, I want the world to look at you and say, I want to be like them. You're going to have such an impact that people are going to say, hey, Ephraim and Manasseh are the people that we want to
be like. He was speaking into their future. They had not yet achieved, but he was seeing something in them that maybe they did not see in themselves. Uh, can I tell you that we live in a time right now that sociologists, psychologists are telling us that they've never seen a generation that is struggling so much with anxiety, loneliness, isolation, depression,
and sometimes suicidal ideation. If you have a junior high, high school, or even college age, there is a pandemic of anxiety that exists, uncertainty about the future, doubting of their worth and value. And I think this word of blessing and affirmation is more important now, probably, than any generation before us, that it is vital, crucial, essential that we as parents are able to speak into the identity,
destiny and the future of our children. You know, you can't dictate what your children are going to be, but you can't speak into the fact that you see qualities in them that you believe are going to do something. I heard of a doctor that was taking their, uh, second grader. Uh, they were going to drop them off at, uh, school, and they had left their stethoscope in the backseat. And so they saw their daughter pick up the stethoscope and
start playing with it. And immediately they thought, hey, she's going to follow my footsteps. Be a doctor as well. Until the little girl in the back seat said, okay, this is McDonald's. What is your order? And so I don't think that you can I don't think that you can dictate what your children are going to be, but you can let your children know that what you see in them before they see it in themselves. You know, that's the nature of God, For example, Gideon in judges.
He had never done anything, never accomplished anything yet. And when God meets Gideon, he says, mighty warrior. He wasn't a mighty warrior. He was hiding in a cave from the enemy. But God saw something in him before he'd ever accomplished anything. Can I tell you something? Listen. God sees your potential. Not just what you've done, but who you are, what you can do. He speaks value into your destiny. Value into your future. He speaks that which is not yet as though it were. And I believe
you say, pastor, you don't know my kid. No, I don't know your kid. But here's what I know that every child is made in the image of God, and there's dignity and value in each of them, regardless of what difficulty they may be going through at the time. Part of the power of the blessing is to look at your children and to remind them that God has a future for them, that that that you see in them what they don't see in themselves yet. I used to. Tell my boys, hey, you're a man of God in
the making. I repeat that over to them. Hey, one day you're a man of God. I see it already in you. I would tell my daughter you're a woman of worth and value. A godly young lady, that God. And they were just young. But I would speak it into them, see it in their lives. My. I remember one day my son Grant, who's 25 now, he's probably
about six years old at the time. I would pray for them and I would say, I would say to Grant, hey, one day you're going to marry a woman, you're going to be a great husband, and you're going to be a father. You're going to raise some children. And he would look at me like, I'm going to raise children. Yeah, one day you're going to raise children. You're going to lead them well, you're going to speak into their destiny.
One day. I could see it in you already that you're going to be a good father and a good and a good husband as well. And I'll never forget, as a six year old, he kind of looked at me a little scared, and he said, I said, I'm praying for your wife. And he said, how am I going to know who she is? There's so many women out there. And I said to him, well, son, do you trust me? He said, yeah. I said, can I choose her for you? He said, yeah. I said, let's
shake on this. I'm going to remind you later. So we shake on it and I remind him now, hey, we shook on it. So that's a done deal. But, but but why am I speaking into them? Because a little boy needs to have a vision of themselves in the future. Can I tell you something, fathers? Let me just be clear about this. If the message that your sons and daughters are getting from you is a message of disappointment, constantly a message of you're going to fail,
how come you're not this? Why aren't you this? You need to do this. You're never going to amount to anything. You're just like your uncle that ended up in jail. You're going to. If that is the constant message that you're speaking into your sons and daughters, then the image that they have of their future is one of doom, of failure. The image that they have of their future is one of already disaster. You are shaping their future destiny by how you speak into their lives.
This is bold steps. And before we continue today's message with both Mark and Josiah Jobe, I want to take a moment to talk about the blessing that you, the listener, can share today with your neighbors and strangers across the globe by partnering with this ministry. Mark, we call them bold partners.
We do call them bold partners. And some of you are already part of this team and we want to say thank you. If you're interested in helping us really get this message to the nations, then I want to encourage you to become a bold partner. This is a Specifically a great time of the year to do so because we're in the final month of our fiscal year. So whether you become a gold partner or decide to give a year end gift, our fiscal year in this would be great to do it before July hits us.
So thank you once again for helping this ministry, coming alongside of us and really being significant partners in getting the gospel to the nations.
Yeah. Let me invite you to sign up today. It's easy to set up a monthly investment in this ministry. You can do that online through our website. Or call our team and become a gold partner by dialing 800 D.L. Moody. That's (800) 356-6639. All right. Now back to the message again. Here's Mark with today's lesson, the power of the blessing.
I remember sitting down with my wife years ago when our kids were in high school, feeling like our interaction with our kids was always correcting. Clean up your room. Do this. Do your homework. How can you turn down the music? Why aren't you doing this? Your room's a mess. My daughter would say. We would say, honey, how could you live in such a messy room? She says, as long as I have a path. And I remember sitting down with my wife and saying, you know, I feel
like a lot of our interaction is just negative. It's just doo doo. How come you're not? And I said, you know, we need to make sure that we're speaking in a positive way to our children. We need to speak into their life and into their future. And so we deliberately decided every day we're going to find something to affirm, find something to speak into their life. They're at a difficult time, the teenage years. But let's make sure that we speak into their destiny and in their life.
And parents, sometimes you're there to correct, you're there to instruct, but you're also there to inspire and shape their minds who they will be in the future. When I was 21 years old, I had started to pastor and I remember. Shortly into it, I was a little bit frustrated with it and I was doubting whether I was called. I was doubting whether I was wired to be a pastor. I wasn't sure I could do this or if I
had the gifting to do it. And I sat down and I talked to my father, who had been a missionary, trained and raised many, many leaders. And I expressed to him, I don't know if this is what I'm good at. I don't know if I really have the ability to do this. And I'll never forget, I was doubting myself, doubting my calling, wondering about this. And my father, the seasoned man who'd raised a bunch of leaders who I respected deeply. He looked at me and he said, are
you kidding me, Mark? He said, you're a man of God. Oh, I see integrity in you. I've seen the call of God in your life for years. I've raised a lot of men, and I could see when someone has a call of God upon their life. And he said to me, he said this to me. He said, I would be
honored to be under your pastoral leadership. To be honest with you, I don't know if it'd be a pastor if I hadn't had that conversation at a key moment in my life where I needed someone that saw something in me that at the moment I couldn't see in myself. Let me tell you something. Fathers look up at me. Never underestimate the power of your words. Never underestimate the power of your affirmation. Never just assume. Will they know already.
Speak into their identity. Speak into the future what you see in them. Make sure that they know not just what they fall short in, but make sure they know clearly, powerfully. What you see in them may be that they don't even see in themselves. It's the power of the blessing.
As you leave this place and you, you go, um, you know, to your gatherings and to your dinners and lunches, you know, I pray that some of you would take it serious and you'd find someone that that you really love, that you've never blessed before. Or maybe you haven't blessed in a long time, and you'd go up to them and you'd give them a hug. I mean, a tight embrace.
And then you would take time to say, I want you to know the value that I see, and fill in those blanks and then speak into their future with the power of the words that you have. I hope you're serious about that. But can I tell you that as we finish with this final step, that if you do all that one time, you'll miss out on the reality of all the power that can have from doing it, not just once, but living a lifestyle of doing it. And the final essence, or essential here to the blessing,
is an active commitment to seeing the blessing fulfilled. This is not just checking the box off one time, but living a life style of coming alongside those people that you value and love the most, and embracing the fullness of the blessing in their life, not just one moment. They point back to maybe that's the defining, the starting moment, but they can say, I lived a life where, you know, I was loved in this type of way by my
father or my mother. They they didn't do it my whole life, but they started speaking it into my story and not just repeatedly living the lifestyle of it, but allowing your words to match your actions. Let me be clear. If you go to one of your children or someone that you love today and tell them how much they mean to you and how much value they have and how much how special they are to you, but then your life does not align with your words. You rob
the blessing of its power. You tell your children how much they mean to you, but you're not there at their games and how special they are. But you're not present in the house and how important marriage is. But you don't love your spouse. Those words don't bless your child because they're not backed up by the reality of a life that you believe in, a life that you're living.
But I want to say this as we conclude that one of the probably the biggest reason why most people withhold part of the blessing is that their parents never gave it to them. So it's hard to give what you never received. But I want to just encourage you with this, that even though you may have never received those blanks filled in in your life, by your father or by your mother, that doesn't mean that you can't
be a blessing to people around you. Because if you've trusted in Jesus Christ and the work that he's done on the cross, you've been adopted into a new family with a new calling, and you have a Heavenly Father who's declared a lot about you in the Bible about the value and the worth and how you chose you before the foundation of the world. And he speaks the value that maybe your earthly father was never able to speak into you. God Almighty, the Heavenly Father speaks those
words of life into you. Listen to second Corinthians 517, which speaks to the reality of a Christian. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone and a new life has begun. Paul wants us to understand that maybe you weren't raised. Maybe these words weren't spoken into your life. Maybe you never received the blessing from your parent, but you are now living a new life in Christ, and you need to pave a new life and a new way for
your family and all of those around you. You are called by God Almighty Himself to be a person that blesses, that your life would be a river to all that that are around you. And so we have a choice. Today is what Deuteronomy says today. I have given you a choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life so
that you and your descendants might live. And so each and every one of us has a choice to walk away with today. Do we want to choose to walk out of the new nature that we have and the new reality because of what Jesus is on the cross? That even though we may have not lived a life of blessing so far, that we can choose today to allow everybody that's around us to experience the blessing from our life as we're filled with the love from Jesus Christ. Amen.
Yeah. There you go. Well, that was Josiah Jobe, my son, who's.
Sometimes hard to tell the difference between the two of you.
It is sometimes. That's what my wife says when she's walking through the halls of the church. But, you know, you may be listening to this message and thinking, you know, pastor Mark, I don't think I've ever received the blessing from my father, or what it means to walk in blessing. And so I want to take a moment and just pray blessing over you, if that's okay. Father, I pray for that person that has never heard from the lips of their father words of encouragement, of affirmation, of destiny,
of worth, of value spoken unto them, Father God. There's, um, a dryness, a vacuum, a longing. And I pray in Jesus name that they would hear from you, God, their heavenly Father, their real, authentic heavenly Father, that they would hear the blessing spoken over them. And so, God, I, I thank you for their destiny. I thank you for their worth. I thank you for that. They they're made in the image of you, their father. I thank you, father, that you have a purpose and a plan for their life.
I thank you, father, that they are uniquely gifted and crafted by you. Father, I thank you that you've known their name since the day that they were born. That there's never been a day that you have not cared about their life. I thank you, father, that even in the brokenness and difficulty of life, father, that you were there, and that you have used the chapters of pain to help form and them character that equips them even for what they're doing today. Father. So I pray blessing and
goodness in your favor in Jesus name. Amen.
Amen. Thank you. Mark. You're listening to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe in the end of a special Father's Day message and the power of the blessing. We encourage you to revisit any part of this message you might have missed, or share with someone you would like to hear it by going to our website Bold Steps. On our homepage. You can also check out an exclusive new resource we
have available something special from Mark's desk. Introducing our new 15 day devotional, more Than a Label Discovering Who You Are in Christ. In this transformative study, Mark guides you through Scripture to uncover the profound truth about your identity in Christ. You'll explore what God designed you to be and understand why knowing your true identity is so vital. This engaging devotional will help you recognize your God given purpose and calling as you engage with biblical truth and
learn to embrace who you really are. This month, we're offering this powerful resource to you with any donation that supports our ministry. Don't allow society's definitions to limit who you are. Embrace the life and purpose God has specifically planned for you. Request your copy of More Than a label today, and begin the journey of discovering the extraordinary person God created you to be. Simply visit Bold steps to donate and request more than a label. Or call
us at 800. D.L. Moody. That's 39 or mail your donation and request to bold steps. 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. By the way, for daily inspiration and biblical wisdom on the go, be sure to follow Mark on social media, too. You'll find engaging content and a vibrant community of believers when you connect with bold steps on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Mark's YouTube channel is a great place to get exclusive video content. There are
special messages there and updates from Mark. So just search for Bold Steps radio and hit that follow or subscribe button when you find us. I'm Wayne Shepherd, signing off. On Monday we begin a series called When You Believe Everything Changes. Don't miss the start of this faith building study Monday on Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.