Fathers Day

ME

how a man can learn to be a good father even when they didn’t have a good example growing up.

WE

Congregation

God

1. For this reason I have sent Timothy to you

Paul sent Timothy to remind the Corinthians of the importance of “admonition” (previous verses).

EIA Explain Illustrate Apply

2.who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord,

Timothy was Paul’s spiritual son, who accepted Paul’s admonitions.

3.who will remind you of my ways in Christ,

Evidently, the problem lay in the Corinthians, forgetting what Paul previously taught them.

as I teach everywhere in every church.

You

All my energy and all I am doing is toward the direction that my children would never remember a day where they wouldn’t know Jesus as Lord.

How about you are you living according or believe in point 1 or 2

WE

What if we point 1,2 etc

Theme

Paul is talking about the nature of not only fatherhood, but this true nature of ministry that is father-like.

As a father, I see that there are three elements that Paul is bringing out in this passage.

1. My heart has to be entirely shaped from a foundation of love toward my children. If that’s not happening, then nothing else of my parenting will be quite right. It has to start from this foundation of deep love and compassion toward my children.

2. I have to be a teacher to my children. Deuteronomy 6:7 gives this responsibility of parents to their children, 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6:7, ESV In other words, from morning to evening, everything you are doing has to be about teaching your children. Not only by words of course but also by an example that affirms the words that you speak.

3. This is the hard one and this is what Paul gets to that is a little bit hard to deal with as we come to it. A part of fathering means discipline. It means loving my children enough not to ignore things, to sweep things under the rug. Rather to recognize that as much as I love them and teach them, eventually at times they are going to go separate ways. My job as a father is to shepherd them back to the path that the Lord has appointed for them. I’m not doing my job if I’m not willing to take that final step of disciplining them in love when they need it.

What Paul says is that ministry in the church is fatherly in those three senses. We are going to see that leaders in the church are;

1. Leaders are Compassionate Fathers 2. Leaders are Consistent Teachers 3. Leaders are Committed Rulers