From Generation to Generation: Father's Day

Good morning and Happy Father’s Day. Today we are going to take time to honor the men in our lives that have made a lasting, positive impact. Similar to Mother’s Day, today can be difficult for some people. Perhaps your dad or a close male relative, or husband has gone on to be with the Lord. Maybe your dad was not the Godly figure that He was called to be. For those of you who are in that situation, know that your Heavenly Father longs to fill that empty space. There is a reason that the Bible often uses the familial type of language…as the bonds of family are some of the strongest attachments we have, whether they are positive or negative. One thing you can be sure of, your Father in Heaven will never let you down.

Much like I did on Mother’s day, where I focused my attention on the ladies, today I will be doing the same for the guys. You may recognise the title: From Generation to Generation, as it is the same title I used for Mother’s day. This is not because I’m being lazy, rather, this series is intended for both, Mother’s and Father’s day, as both the men and ladies are responsible for carrying the message of Christ forward, from Generation to Generation. Let’s go ahead and pray, then we will get started.

PRAY

Psalm 119: 89-93

“Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations; You established the earth, and it stands. They stand this day according to Your ordinances, For all things are Your servants. If Your law had not been my delight, Then I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget Your precepts, For by them You have revived me.”

As it was originally written in the Hebrew language, Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem. It is divided into twenty-two parts or stanzas, with each section starting with one of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Of course, this is lost in translation, literally. The section I just read to you is about the Psalmist praising the Lord for His stable, guiding hand. The writer starts out talking about the power of God to create and control the cosmos…then he narrows his focus down to the personal level. In this passage you get the feeling that the Psalmist is comforted by the fact that he can count on God’s faithfulness. He doesn’t have to worry whether or not God and His word will change, according to mood or circumstance.

The word

Faithful: remaining loyal and steadfast.

Among the many other adjectives that describe our Lord, faithful is one of the many that we are called to emulate in our everyday lives. A couple of weeks ago my son talked about bearing the image of God. How Noah, who God considered righteous, bore the image of God. One of Noah’s many traits is being faithful…loyal and steadfast.

Think about some of the men in the Bible that personified faithfulness, often times in spite of difficult circumstances. Of course, we all know the guys like Abraham and David, Moses. We talked about Noah a couple weeks ago. All these men were faithful. Outside of some of these major figures we can find some men that did not get as much attention…they don’t have a book named after them, nor did they write a book. These are just ordinary guys. For example, let’s look at a couple of guys, one named Caleb, the other was Joshua!

The story that mentions Caleb is found in the book of Numbers. To set this up a little bit, the story of Caleb and the 12 spies happen right after the Lord delivered Israel from Egyptian slavery. After the Egyptian army was killed, the Israelites eventually made their way to the promised land. This was actually before they wondered the desert for 40 years. That is important to remember. So, the newly freed people approach the promised land, so Moses picks one leader from each tribe. These 12 men were to go into the land and find out what it looked like, who lived there…things of that nature.

Numbers 13:1-2

“Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, “Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them.””

Among these 12 spies were Caleb and Joshua. Most of us know who Joshua is. He ended up taking over when Moses died…but Caleb has kind of been forgotten to history. So, these 12 men went in to spy out the land. After a period of time, they came back to give their report.

Numbers 13:25–29

When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. Thus they told him, and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.”

So, the majority of the spies came back and reported that although the area is nice…it is full of giants…when it says “The descendants of Anak,” that means they saw giants…huge towering men, like that of Goliath. In other words, these 10 spies got everyone very afraid. What the 10 spies were trying to say was: trying to take the land simply isn’t worth the trouble. But then, Caleb steps up.

Numbers 13: 30-33

“Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.””

Both Caleb and Joshua are the only ones out of the 12 that profess any faith, that God will keep His word and give Israel the land. Caleb steps up and tries to encourage the crowd to have faith, but the people were not having any of it.

Imagine how much courage and faith it took for Caleb to stand up in the midst of all that fear and proclaim that God is indeed able to deliver on the promise made to Abraham all those generations before. What Caleb and Joshua understood is that the God of Israel is faithful from generation to generation.

The situation with the spies coming back and causing the people to lose faith and to grumble against Moses cost them dearly. It had only been a short time since they left Egypt…God was about to bring them into the promised land, but because of the people’s lack of faith and their unwillingness to see what Caleb saw, God handed down a severe consequence.

After the whole spy fiasco, God had it up to “here” with the people…but Moses interceded on their behalf and God stowed His justice, but God did not take away the consequence for those who were grumbling.

Numbers 14: 22-25

“Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it. Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys; turn tomorrow and set out to the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.””

So, because of the lack of faith, the Israelites would have to suffer a consequence…they would have to wait until the current generation dies, in order to enter the promised land…so, instead of being able to settle down and establish their own nation, they would wonder the desert for 40 more years. Everyone that is, except for Caleb and Joshua. The 2 men who stood up and declared their faith, despite the overwhelming pressure of everyone around them. Caleb and Joshua would be able to see God’s promise come to fruition. I will tell you this, the church could use a few more Caleb’s today! Think about the positive example that Caleb set for his own family when he stood up and declared God’s faithfulness! As a result of his faithfulness, Caleb was able to enter the promise land with the rest of his family, instead of being a part of the generation that would die off first.

Of course, there are many other men in scripture who displayed amazing faith and faithfulness, in spite of tough circumstances. As men of God, we are called to mirror the faithfulness and devotion that we see inn scripture. Regardless of your age, whether you are still young, or…not young, you have been set apart by the Lord. You are no longer your own, you belong to the Lord! Because of this, you have a mandate, a calling, a responsibility to conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of that calling. On top of that, if you have been entrusted by God to be in a place of leadership, over a family or at work, or then our level of responsibility climbs to an even greater level. At this point, not only are you responsible for yourself, but you are now responsible for how you lead. We are accountable to the Lord for how we are passing on our faith, from Generation to Generation.

Psalm 145:1–7

I will extol You, my God, O King, And I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, And His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Your majesty And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate. Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, And I will tell of Your greatness. They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness.

When I think about men who have modeled passing on their faith from generation to generation, I could (of course) talk about my grandfather or my father… both of them godly men. There is another guy though that I know of, I’ve met him before, but I do not know him well. His name is pastor Dale Crall. He led a small church on the Southern Illinois University campus for at least 25 years. Dale and his wife couldn’t have kids, so they ended up adopting a little girl…who is now grown and having a child of her own. Today, we often measure a pastor’s success by the size of their church or the annual budget they have to work with. Well, if we were to judge pastor Dale and C.C.C. by those standards, he would not be considered successful. If, however, we determine success by Pastor Crall’s fruit, he would be considered one of the most successful pastors that’s ever lead a church. Just in my small circle of people, I know of 3 individuals that came to know the Lord at C.C.C., under the leadership of pastor Dale. Laura is one of those individuals. Over the 25 years that Pastor Dale led C.C.C., no doubt, hundreds and maybe even more, young adults dedicated their lives to the Lord. Not only that, but one thing that made C.C.C. so successful was their ability to disciple people, once they gave their hearts to Christ. By the time these individuals graduated college, they were not nominal Christians…they were on fire for the Lord, with roots planted deep down in God’s word and a passion to live holy lives.

Of course, God calls us each to different things. We are not all called to be Dale Crall. We are, however, supposed to be faithful to the portion that God has given us. Unfortunately, in today’s society, even within the church, men are not stepping up to be leaders. In fact, According to the Lifeway Research Group, the Sunday with the lowest church attendance is Father’s Day. This means that the one day of the year that we actually celebrate men in our lives, the men would rather do something other than take their family to church. This is a sad commentary on we are today.

To finish up today, I want to look at a couple verses in Ephesians Ch. 6. and talk about what we can do to help pass on our faith to the next generation.

Ephesians 6: 1-4

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

According to research by Promise Keepers and Baptist Press, if a father doesn’t attend church but the mother does with her children, only 1 child out of 50 will grow up to become a regular attender of worship service. What a bleak statistic, right! I could go on a tear right now talking about this, but I will refrain…I will let the statistic speak for itself. This is the only thing I will say: men who choose to bring their families to church still expect their kids and their wives to honor their scriptural roles, all the while, they are not honoring their role as spiritual head of the family. That’s enough about that. It’s not my intent to come down too hard on that, as I grew up with plenty of friends where both parents were at every service the church had, yet their kids wanted nothing to do with the Lord…that to say, simply going to church is not the ultimate answer to passing on our faith from generation to generation. Taking your family to church is only a small part of the equation; 3/4 of our passing on our faith is done in the privacy of our homes.

A moment ago I read from Ephesians 6. Paul starts the chapter by reminding the children that they are to honor their father’s and mother’s. All of us are familiar with these passages, of course, this is one of the 10 commandments…Paul then continues into vs. 4 by saying:

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord! There happens to be a similar verse found in the book of Col., another writing of Pau.

Col. 3:21

“Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart.” (NASB 95)

“Fathers, do not antagonize your children, so that they will not become discouraged.” (NASB 20)

“Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.” (NIV)

In both of these passages Paul is actually giving out, what would have been considered a pretty radical idea (at the time). The same could be said Paul told husbands to love their wives like Christ loved the church…which signifies the ultimate in servant leadership. Back in the ancient Greco-Roman world, women and children were considered property of the husband…no different than a household slave. This is why Paul will usually address women, children and slaves in the same context. Paul knew this was not God’s perfect design for a family-for the man to rule over his house like he is the king and everyone else are the subjects. That is not the proper way to pass on our faith from generation to generation-that is certainly not the example given to us by Christ-who is supposed to the the head of our families.

Paul was working against hundreds of years of societal tradition though. Paul tells the fathers to make sure and not provoke, exasperate, antagonize or embitter their children…instead of doing that, make sure to bring them up in the discipline and instruction or fear and admonition of the Lord. What exactly is Paul talking about when we says “do not provoke your children to anger?” How does a dad, or mom (for that matter) provoke their children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews to anger?

I think there are a few ways that we can exasperate our kids:

By not keeping our word or being indecisive!

There are always going to be times where we have to break a promise or an emergency comes up…that is not what I’m talking about. Those should be rare occasions…scripture says that our yes should be yes and our no should be no…that applies to what we tell kids or adults. One thing that would drive me nuts when I was a kids pastor were the parents who would never give their child a straight answer....everything was a maybe. I understand that we sometimes can’t give an immediate answer…when that was the case with the kids we care for, I say “let me think about that.”

2. Overly harsh or inappropriate discipline!

To be honest, I almost feel as though this one doesn’t hardly need to be mentioned anymore, as 9/10 times, it is the other extreme that is the problem (which we will talk about in a couple minutes). However, overly harsh discipline isn’t necessarily spanking a kid too hard. In fact, overly harsh discipline can happen w/out even touching the children. This can be hurtful words, screaming and yelling, ignoring or shunning them when you are angry. All of those things can cause long-term resentment. Again, looking back at my kids pastor days, I would see overly permissive parents not deal with their kids behavior…then all of a sudden get angry and scream at them or say nasty things to them.

3. Extreme Expectations!

Men can be really bad at this. They want to live through their kids, so they will expect them to do the things they were interested in, when they were younger. Dad was on the wrestling team, so his son and grandson have to be on the wrestling team. They do not allow their kids to develop into what God has for them. Of course, we want to push our kids to succeed, that is totally healthy…but we should do this so they become who God wants them to be, not what we want them to be.

Ephesians 6:6 finishes by saying…but instead, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. So, instead of provoking or exasperating our children, we are to pass on our faith to them.

The term Discipline and instruction is: παιδεύω (paideuō). vb. train, educate

In Acts 7:22 παιδεύω occurs in the original classical sense: “Moses was instructed (ἐπαιδεύθη) in all the wisdom,”

We are to train and educate the younger generation, so they can see and experience the benefit of walking with the Lord. Sometimes this is a joy, but other times, it can be quite difficult…but God never promised that it would be easy. He did, however, give us the tools we need to accomplish the task. As I said earlier, as men of God, we are given the responsibility of leading our families in the right direction.

Deut 6:7

“You shall teach them diligently to your sons 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 up.”

Teaching and educating the younger generation about the Lord is not a passive activity. Earlier on I mentioned kids I grew up with, who’s parents were very faithful in going to church, and in making sure their kids were there…but that is where the training and education stopped. At home, the kids learned and saw something completely different. One of my friends, his dad was a tyrant and would be super harsh. Another friend I had, the parents would just ignore each other…so the mom tried to make up by buying the kids love. Yet another friend of mine, as soon as they got home from church, the fighting and bickering would start and wouldn’t end until the next church day. None of these kids serve the Lord today…yet they all went to church.

Those dads were not passing on their faith to the next generation…their faith was their own…they couldn't be bothered to spend time training and educating in the Lord.

Like I did earlier, let me quickly give you 3 things that can help us pass on our faith, to train and educate the next generation.

We need to

Train them

Perhaps you think of training and educating as the same thing…but they are not the same. Training has to do with discipline. The NASB says: the discipline and instruction of the Lord. One of the ways we pass on our faith is to instill proper godly discipline or training. The younger they are, the more this is needed, as it is your job to “train them in the way they should go” as scripture says. Godly discipline is one of the most important things that a parent can do to make sure their faith is passed on. When the child is young, they will not appreciate it…but, if it is done correctly, it will lead to a well balanced young adult. These days, permissive parenting is all the rage. When I take the girls to the park I overhear the conversations between kids and their parents or grandparent all the time. The adult will say it’s time to go and the kid will quip back “no.” What does the parent do? They begin to negotiate with the child. There is absolutely no respect or godly fear in the kids, whatsoever. Maybe the adult will issue some empty threats that mean absolutely nothing, as the kid has learned that nothing will happen to them if they disobey. Sadly, Christian parents and grandparents are just as bad in this area as non-believing parents. Sometimes training our kids is not easy, sometimes we have to hurt their feelings and be the bad guy. So many parents want to be their kids friend…not their parent. Kids do not need an adult friend, they need a godly adult that will love them unconditionally, but not be afraid to discipline them when necessary. If you start young, by the time they are older, they have already learned the important lessons.

Educate them

If training is discipline, then education is instruction. Like in the book of Acts, it says that Moses was instructed in all the wisdom. This normally happens as they get older and can understand. Unfortunately, if you do not start early with training, then instructing them becomes much more difficult. Educating the younger generation means spending time with them. It means living out an example of a godly man in front of them. Treating your spouse like you would want your own daughter treated, or how you would want your son to treat their wife. Let them see you say you are sorry when you mess us. The younger generation learns much more from what we do, rather than what we say. What are our priorities…it is work, money? When is the last time someone young in your family has seen you praying? Guess what, whatever your priorities are, they will learn to mimic them. One of the best things I saw a parent do one time was to have their children put the family tithe in the offering…something small like that shows the younger generation that mom and dad, grandma and grandpa are faithful to the Lord with their finances. I know that Dean gets together with some of his boys every Saturday and they have a Bible study…even though they are grown, that shows them what their dad thinks is important.

Pray for them

Let’s say that your kids and grand-kids, nephews and nieces are grown…or, perhaps you are no longer in a position to train them or educate them…then praying for them is the most important thing you can do. In fact, even if you are still in a position to do those things…praying for them is still top priority. The Lord honors the prayers of a dad or mom or grandparent. There is SO much about training up and educating the next generation that is beyond our control, especially as they grow older and become more independent. We can’t protect our kids from every evil or bad choice. That’s why prayer is vital. In prayer, we ask the omnipotent, omnipresent God to intervene on behalf of our children.

1 Peter 5:8

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

Men, don’t think for a second that the enemy doesn’t have plans for those you love…I’m not trying to be overly dramatic here…but scripture makes it clear that our battle is spiritual in nature. We scoff at that at our own peril. But here is the good news for all of the men out there that have not been perfect…which is all of us. Although we sometimes fail those we are supposed to care for…our heavenly father never fails. He is faithful from Generation to Generation…just like Psalm 119 declares. When we are weak, our Lord is strong…where we fall short…He keeps going. The more we try and do things under our own power, the more we will falter. That is the great thing about the call to be a Godly man…the more we rely on our Heavenly Father, the more capable we become to fulfill that high calling.

The ancient Israelites knew all too well how important it was to pass on their faith to the next generation. Often they failed miserably.

Judges 2:10

“All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.”

Judges goes on to say that the children of Israel started worship Baal and other false gods....yet, guess who remained faithful? The Lord remained faithful and kept His promise. We are called to do likewise, let us not be like men of Israel and neglect to pass on our faith to the next generation. Let’s do our part to ensure that we are faithful from generation to generation…even if we have to be like Caleb and Joshua…the only ones brave enough to remember that God’s word will stand the test of time and that we can rely on His promises.

Let’s Pray!

Prayer for Jeanette