The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - You Don't Know My Father

Episode Date: May 12, 2017

Have you ever thought about the fact that one of the best ways for someone to get to know your dad is to ask you about him? Tune in to hear Jeff share a story about how a trip to a hardware store helped him understand Jesus' relationship with his Father- our Father.

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show. Episode 15. You don't know my father. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general.

It's the Jeff Kaven show. Hey, welcome to the show. I'm Jeff Kavins. Glad you could join me once again. Hey, I want to talk to you today about something that happened to me in the parking lot of one of these big box stores. You know what I mean by a box store. You've got these stores that they sell lawn equipment, they sell plumbing, they sell refrigerators, kitchen, tools, everything. And I had an amazing revelation the other day.

And I want to share it with you because, you know, sometimes the, the best things that happen in terms of revelation and God kind of, you know, revealing himself to me. They happen in everyday life. And this happened just the other day. So I want to share it with you. And the title of this show is just simply, you don't know my father. You don't know my father. Hey, before I get into that, I want to thank you for all of your comments, all of your suggestions. We are taking them very seriously. My amazing producer, Marisa, is collating all of this. putting it together and we're giving serious attention to all of your suggestions. You can go to the website ascensionpresents.com forward slash podcasts for all the show notes.

I'm going to give you some scriptures today that talk about this theme of you don't know my father. You don't know my father. And if you're driving in the car, whatever you happen to be doing, if you can't give full attention to taking notes, we got you covered. We got all the show notes waiting for you. and so you can just go there whenever you get to work or whatever. But I really appreciate all of your comments. By the way, if you do have more comments, more suggestions, any critiques,

you can go to iTunes.com, Apple's iTunes. You can also go to your email and send me an email. It's very simple, The Jeff Kaven Show, at ascensionpress.com. Ascensionpress.com. Well, I want to talk to you a little bit about what happened to me just the other day. I don't think it's going to be a really a long show, but I think it's going to be a meaningful show because the Lord kind of revealed himself to me in a powerful way. You know, both of my parents at the time of this broadcaster are alive.

They're doing okay. They're in their 80s. And I grew up in Minnesota. My dad was really a hero for me growing up. And his name's Bob, by the way. My dad's name is Bob. And my earliest memories were just right around two, three years old when I was on the campus of Iowa State University. And my dad was pursuing his Ph.D. in electrical engineering.

Now, if you know anything about electrical engineering, you know, these are super geek, wise, very smart brainstorms. And I grew up with all of my friends knowing that my father was an incredible brainstorm who knew how to do all kinds of calculations in his head and thought that advanced math was fun. We did not get along all the time. But my dad was really, really, really smart. And when he left Iowa State back in the early 60s, he ended up in Minnesota, which that's where I grew up. And he ended up with quite a responsible job with control data. And then he went on to become a vice president of Honeywell, which many of you are familiar with. And he just really was incredible. Now, when he was, when we were growing up, we'd always ask our dad, what do you do exactly,

dad with that slide rule in those floodpants and those books that you have? And he can never talk about it. Because it turns out my father was involved in some pretty serious government work and weaponry and just things that you just, you know, it's classified type stuff and you don't come home and talk to your fifth grade son or your sixth grade son about about all of that well my dad had an amazing career and a number of years ago my father ended up having a stroke and i think he was about 62 63 years old and it was a pretty serious stroke he was only a couple years away from retiring and the stroke in effect ended his career it was sad it was sad for him. It was sad for us and he went from a PhD to basically couldn't even read the phone

book at that time. And he got all that back. I'm glad to tell you today that he recovered. He's doing fine and smarter than ever. But during that time of recovery, he would go to one of these big stores. You know what I'm talking about, Lowe's Home Depot, Menards up in the Minnesota area, these kinds of stores. And he would go into the stores and my dad would wander the aisles as he was fascinated with fix-it type of things, you know, handyman types of things.

Well, he landed a job at one of these places. And I think he did that because he wanted to exercise, you know, in his retirement, keep his mind going, you know, and be able to share with people some of the knowledge that he had. Now, he had gained back all of his mental capabilities and all of that.

And in his retirement, there he was at one of these stores and working with his vest and telling people all about electronics and this and in that, okay? So I remember so much, you know, so many times going to either pick him up or my mom went to pick him up and he was fascinated with all of this fix-it stuff. Well, not too long ago,

My dad had another run-in with a health issue, and he had a head injury. He fell, and he had quite a bruise in his brain. And there was a few young people at this place that he worked that noticed that he wasn't on for a couple of days, and they were worried about him. And they told him he needed to go and get help immediately, and he did. And he went to get help and found out that he had quite a brain bruise, quite a concussion. And everybody took that as the sign that maybe dad needed to really stop. He's in his mid-80s and he needs to stop working and be at home more, which I think was a little bit

difficult. Now, what's interesting is that I remember, you know, people that worked with him at one of these big box stores. You'd get these young 21, 22, 25-year-old, you know, young people in the electrical department who were informing my dad, you know, about electrical engineering and circuits and electricity. And one thing about my dad is that he's really humble. And he never told people about his education or really how celebrated he was in electrical engineering. Well, he stopped working. And a couple months went by or so forth. And I found myself going to that store that he worked at because I needed to pick up some furnace filters for my wife. And as I was in the store, this great big box store, it suddenly dawned on me this is where my dad worked months

earlier. And I got to thinking to myself, I wonder if, I wonder if they really knew who my father was. I wonder if they really knew the man that was standing before them. And so as I went up to the information counter. I was giving this young man about 28, 29 years old information about my furnace. And he told me the filter that I needed to get. And I stopped and I said, what's your name? And he told me his name. And I said, did you ever know Bob Kavins? He said, sure, everybody here knows Bob Kavins. He said, I said, how is he doing? And I said, how is he doing? And I said, he's doing good. He's recovering and he's doing fine. And he said, well, yeah, I happened to be the guy that called that day to see we could get him help because I knew something wasn't right

because he had fallen and he had banged his head and I knew something wasn't right. And I said, I just want to thank you for that. It really means a lot to know that you cared about my dad. He says, everybody here cares about your dad. Everybody likes your dad. And I said, well, thank you. Appreciate it. And I got my filters and I went out into the car. car. And before I turned the car on, I sat there thinking about the situation and all of a sudden it dawned on me. I thought to myself, that kid doesn't know my dad. Those people there don't really, really know my dad. And I felt this urge to go back in and to tell them. And I sat there for about three or four minutes and I thought, you know what, I'm going to do it. And I took the keys out of

the ignition and I started to go back into the store. And I found the young man. He was over by the paint section and he was talking to a couple of customers at that time. And he looked at me like, did you need something else? And I said, I can wait. I can wait. So I waited about 10 minutes until he was done with those customers. And then he came over and he said, can I help you with anything else. And I said his name for the lack of, you know, for, I'll just say it's Gary, okay, I don't tell you his real name, but I said, Gary, can I talk to you for a second? He said, sure. And I said, I don't think you knew my dad. He said, what do you mean? I said, tell me what you know about my dad. And he said, well, he's smart. He's very helpful, you know, and always cheerful.

always there and, you know, help to people and this and that. And I said, did you know that my dad had a PhD in electrical engineering? And he said, no. Did you know that he sat in the department over there and listened to the instruction of young people telling him about electricity and never told him that he had a PhD in electrical engineering? He said, no. Did you know that my dad worked on U.S. weaponry and government high classified situations with his expertise and lasers and electronics. He said, no. I said, I don't think you know my dad. But I wanted to come in and tell you about my father and the father that a lot of people don't know, who's a humble man, who worked hard, loved his family, and was incredibly smart.

And he said, I never knew any of this. He said, this is interesting that you're telling me this. When I was done talking to him and filling out the whole spectrum of who my father was to me, he was very touched. And after about 15 minutes or so, I left and I went out to the car and I sat down again and I thought, I'm glad I went back in there because those people heard about my father and maybe they got a glimpse of him, but they didn't really know my father. But it took the son to reveal the father to those people.

And that got me thinking, you know, about Jesus and how Jesus came to earth 2,000 years ago to reveal his father to us. And a lot of religions around the world, they talk about God and different aspects of God, but they didn't get a full glimpse and a true glimpse of our Heavenly Father until the Son came and went in to this earth and said, let me tell you about my father.

And that's what Jesus did. And that's what this show is about. it's about sons and daughters revealing their heavenly father to the world and that's what i want to talk to you about now these people that i talked to at this store they learned about what it means to truly be humble as i described my father they learned that i'm incredibly proud to be my father's son they also learned that you can never judge someone because you just must might not know what they have been through or are going through in their life. You might not know the depth of their background.

If you judge them, you might get it wrong. You see, those workers didn't know my father, yet I was very grateful for the opportunity to tell them about him. Now, Jesus came to teach the world about his father. Why? Because the world didn't know his father. Oh, sure, throughout the Old Testament, piecemeal, a little bit at a time, they started to understand more and more about God the Father through words and deeds.

It's true. But then when Jesus came, it's like a full disclosure. Father, he says, in John 17, I have revealed them to you. I have done everything that you have asked me to do. You see, there's a parallel, a parallel between me talking to those workers. at the box door about my father and Jesus, 2,000 years ago, coming and revealing his father, his heavenly father to the world. There's a great parallel there. Now, the starting point is that the revelation of God as father starts a long time ago, really in the Old Testament. When you

have Abraham, and Abraham had two sons, didn't he? He had Ishmael and he had Isaac. And the two world, two of the three world religions come from Abraham. Well, they all purport to come from Abraham. You've got, you've got Judaism, you've got Christianity, and you've got, the last was Islam, okay? But Judaism and Christianity see God differently than Islam does. In Judaism and Christianity, we see Abraham through the eyes of Isaac, which means that Abraham is father. Now, Islam would not agree with that. In fact, they would say that that is heresy, that's blasphemous, and that God is Allah, he got his master.

He's not a earthly figure like a father. But Ishmael, which Islam stems from, sees Abraham not his father, but as master, Allah. And that's a difference between them. And so this idea of God as our father goes way back, way back. What I wanted to say to these workers was you've spent a little bit of time with my father, but you don't really know him, but I would like to spend some time with you, and I'd like to reveal my father to you.

Now I'm going to take a break. When I come back, I want to talk to you about some of the truths here, about what Jesus teaches about our heavenly father that I've taken, from this sudden realization at the box store about telling the coworkers there about my earthly father. We're going to take a break when we come back. We'll continue on. You are listening to The Jeff Kaven Show.

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create an online account at ascensionpress.com. Welcome back to the Jeff Kaven show. I am Jeff. I'm here with you to share some of the things that are happening in my life on a daily basis and how God is revealing himself to me, how I'm trying to be a better disciple, a more fruitful disciple. And I mentioned before the break that it wasn't too long ago that I went into one of these box stores that my dad worked at after he had a stroke and he was in his retirement and he was working there.

My dad has a PhD and I felt that after visiting the store, after he really quit, I ran into some of his coworkers and it suddenly dawned on me that they really didn't know my father and I needed to reveal my father to them. And we're talking about sons and daughters revealing the Heavenly Father to the world. Now, there's ways to get to know him. There's ways to get to know Him.

Now, you can get to know God the Father. You can do this by Googling him. I mean, if you want to. In fact, he has a Wikipedia page. God the Father has a Wikipedia page. And there have been many writings about all of his accomplishments. Like my dad, he has a PhD. electrical engineering. Well, actually, he created electricity. God the father created. My father

created electricity. So he's the go-to guy with electrical questions. And so you can certainly Google about God. And you can spend time with him. And that's really true. But number three, you can spend some time with me, his son. And if you spend time with me, his son, I'll teach you all about my dad. I will teach you about my dad. And if you spend that time with me, I'll tell you what his will is. I'll tell you what he likes. I'll tell you what he doesn't like. I'll tell you what he does in certain situations. I can reveal my father to you. Now that's true of Jesus, isn't it? When we spend time with Jesus, he reveals the Heavenly Father to us, our Heavenly Father. He completely teaches us about the Father. Now there's a few things that Jesus teaches us as we come to him.

And I love this. I tell you, I love this stuff. When we read the Bible in the Old Testament, God reveals himself and word indeed true, absolutely true. But the church teaches us that when Jesus came, he fully revealed the Father, and he is the final word. He's the final word on who the Heavenly Father is. He says, if you see me, you see the Father. if you hear me, you hear the Father. In other words, the Father and the Son are in total sync in terms of their will, their message,

the first person of the Trinity of the Father, the second person of the Trinity, the Son, and the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. So Jesus teaches us, number one, about the work of his father. He says way back in Luke chapter 2 in verse 49, even as a 12-year-old boy, he said, when they found him in the temple, did you not know that I had to be in my father's house? Did you not know that I had to be in my father's house?

You see, Jesus was always interested in the plan of his father. In John chapter 5 in verse 17, Jesus is at the pool of Bethesda, and he ends up healing a man in that pool. and when the waters are stirred, the first one in is healed, and one man could never get in there. He never had anybody to help him get into the water. And Jesus comes by, and he heals them. And they started getting on Jesus. About what?

About healing on the Sabbath. And what did Jesus say? I love this. I absolutely love it. It's in John 517. Jesus said, you know, okay, listen, you're upset that I'm working on the Sabbath. Sabbath. Well, there's other places in Scripture that mentioned that the priest can work on the

Sabbath in the Old Testament, but that's not the argument that Jesus is going to appeal to. No, he says, my father is working until now. In other words, yes, six days of creation, then you have the Sabbath and rest. But Jesus is saying, you know what, though, there's a whole other dimension of work that my father is still working until now. And then he says, and I'm myself am working. So what he concludes is that he and the father are one. He is equal with the father. He's part of the Trinity.

Those are the kinds of statements that absolutely drove the people crazy. So Jesus was about his father's work. He was about his father's work. And as he did his father's work, he revealed his father to the world. And you can do the same thing, my friend. I can do the same thing as I am obedient to Jesus, I will reveal my heavenly father to the world. Jesus even said it. He said, if you love me, you will obey my commands. Now, number two, how can we know the father?

Well, Matthew 1127 says, all things have been handed over to me by my father, and no one knows the son except the father, nor does anyone know the father except the son, and anyone to who the son wills to reveal him. So how can we know the Father? How can we know the Father? The Son, once again, we see, reveals Him. Number three, how can we talk to our Heavenly Father? Well, Jesus told us this in the sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 6, and 7.

But in Matthew 6, verse 9, he said, listen, I'm going to reveal to you something, because you've asked me how to pray you've seen me in prayer you've heard me talk to my father you know that I'm in constant contact and in precise symbiotic cooperation with my father you know

that you want to know how to pray here's how you pray our father who art in heaven hallow it be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against

us. He taught us how to pray. That's one of the great things that the son does. That's a great thing that today, the son, the daughter, you, me, we do is we reveal to the world how to pray and how to have this relationship with the Heavenly Father. Number four, Jesus, Jesus teaches us what his father has for us. In Luke 1232, Jesus said, do not be afraid, little flock. For your father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. Now, what's the kingdom? Well, the kingdom is where the king is reigning. It's where the kingdom is supplying.

It's where the king is protecting. It's where the king rules. And your father has chosen gladly to give all of this to you. That's the message of the son. That's your message, my friend, to those at work, extended family, neighbors. number five how to be with our father Jesus said in Matthew 1250 whoever does the will of my father who is in heaven

he is my brother and sister and mother so how do you how do you be with the father you do the will of your father and that's the way you really get to know him number six Jesus teaches us to trust his father Luke 1113 says if you then being evil

know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him that was the doorbell my friends this is real living we'll just let him stay out there for a little bit

so that number six to trust your father Jesus teaches us to trust him. He's going to give you what you need. He's going to give you what you need. Luke 12 also says, and do not seek what you shall eat and what you shall drink, and do not keep worrying for all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek, but your father knows that you need these things. And then number seven, Jesus teaches us that the Father loves us more than we can imagine. imagine. The Father loves us more than we could possibly imagine. I love what it says in Matthew chapter 6 in verse 26. Look at the birds of the air. That they do not sow, neither do they reap nor gather into barns. And yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much

more than they? You see, the goal is to be like Jesus. In this whole teaching today, it's really to be like Jesus. As I sat in that car thinking about going back into this giant box store, I got a little nervous, to be honest with you. And I thought, well, I sound silly. Will I sound like I'm bragging? Well, I sound like maybe they don't know what they're doing.

Those things entered my mind. but you know when I really got to think about it the important thing was they needed to know I wanted them to know who my father was and I felt that day that if I just drove away after having a small conversation with them prior that it would bother me for months and maybe years that I had a chance to tell these people who my father was the one that they they knew something about, but they didn't know the whole thing, it would have bothered me. And I would have wished in one year, two, five, ten years from now that I would have had another chance to go back and tell them. To be honest with you, when I went back in the car after telling them who my father

was, I sat there for about two or three minutes, and I'll be honest with you, there was a sense of satisfaction. There was a sense of satisfaction of a proud son. who is happy to tell people about his father. Now, my friend, I want to encourage you this week. I know your life is busy. I know you've got bills to pay. You've got appointments to keep. You've got email to answer.

You've got kids who have problems and you want to relax. But you've got to remember in the midst of all of life now. You've got to remember that one of the most important things we have to do, if not the most important thing to do, is to reveal God in everything we say and in everything we do. And I pray especially if you're a dad. I pray that when your kids, if you have kids and they grow up, that one day they'd be so proud of you and so happy with you

and the way you raised them and your example that they would like to tell other people about you. If you're a mom, you've got children, I pray the same thing that one day they will want to tell people about their mom, about their dad. So this week, I'm going to encourage you to look for opportunities to tell people about your heavenly father. You might be saying, well, I'm not real good with words. Well, you can certainly do things that will reflect your heavenly father but you know what when it came in to go into that store and telling those co-workers of my father's about him about my father about him uh i wasn't too worried about my english or the sentence structure or having everything exactly right i was just an enthusiastic son

that wanted him to know and you know what they said at the end this guy thank you he said it makes sense now that you told me who your dad was and I have so much respect for him. My friends, that's the message I have for you today. Now, the scriptures that I gave, they're going to be in the show notes and I encourage you to go there. Also, do me a favor. Go ahead on iTunes, tell me what you think about the show, but share the show with someone who needs to hear this. Share the show with someone who is a father or a mother and wants to have an impact on their children. Just couldn't make a difference. You never know. Can I pray with you before we go? In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you today for giving me my

Father. And Father, I thank you that He reflects you, and I want to do that as well. I pray for all my friends listening that they will take this message, heart and see their life as a long extension of revealing you to the world and that we don't need to be afraid. We don't need to be ashamed. But we're proud and we are thrilled to brag about you. Heavenly Father, you have the cattle of a thousand hills. You're the creator of the universe. You created electricity. You are the great I am. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Have a good week, my friend. Thank you.