A Blessed Father
Father's Day • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Today, we are going to take a break from our series on “Putting Away Immorality” with today being Father’s Day.
When the great apostle Paul wrote what we call 2 Corinthians he describes God’s relationship with the church in 2 Corinthians 6:16-18. As we read this pay special attention to verse 18.
2 Corinthians 6:16–18 (ESV)
16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
Unfortunately, many living today have no idea what it is like to physically have a father.
Approximately, 20 million children have been “abandoned” by their fathers.
To put this in perspective that is only 10 million shy of the population of Canada.
Because of this reality many boys grow up in single-mother homes having no idea how to be a dad.
Today, we are going to look at what God says it takes to not just be a father but be a blessed father.
Blessed fathers are…
The Right Example
The Right Example
Godly Fathers Lead By Example.
Godly Fathers Lead By Example.
Leading by example is by far one of the greatest training mechanisms God has given dads to train their children.
Unfortunately we have a lot of fathers today that have no idea how to lead by example and children see this.
A lot of dad’s in the church today “talk about putting God first” but they do not lead by example that in their lives.
These fathers are not seen by their kids opening their bible, much less loving studying God’s word.
97 Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.
These fathers are not seen by their kids praying other than at meals, much less having a close relationship with God.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 (ESV)
17 pray without ceasing
These fathers are not seen by their kids allowing nothing to keep them from worshiping with the saints rather they see their dads choosing, all sorts of things over worshiping God.
Hebrews 10:24–26 (ESV)
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. 26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins
Godly fathers lead by example in their lives by loving God in more than words, but in action.
27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Summary
Summary
It won’t take kids long to see through those that dads that say they will lead them to heaven but live as one that has no idea how to do so.
Billy Graham one time found himself in a town one time leading one of his crusade meetings in South Carolina. He needed to mail a letter and so he stopped a young boy on the road and asked where the post office was. After the boy told him how to get there Billy said to the boy, “If you come to the central Baptist church tonight, I’ll tell you how to get to heaven.” The boy replied, “No thanks, you don’t even know how to get to the post office.”
Blessed fathers are…
The Right Providers
The Right Providers
Godly Fathers Provide Physically.
Godly Fathers Provide Physically.
There are too many dead beat dads in the world today.
With modern society demanding role reversals between husbands and wives, mothers and fathers it is important we understand God the Father’s stance on this.
1 Corinthians 11:3 (NKJV)
3 But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
God expects mother’s to “make a home” and father’s to “provide for the home.”
8 But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
A father that does not provide for his home is “worse than an unbeliever” and has denied the faith.
A godly father will work hard, though not putting God second, to make certain his family is taken care of.
The beauty of this is, that if he puts God first he will always be successful at providing for his families physical needs.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Matthew 6:33 (ESV)
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Godly fathers provide the physical but we also know that…
Godly Fathers Provide Spiritually.
Godly Fathers Provide Spiritually.
Father’s cannot just be “examples” they must teach God’s word to their children as well.
Ephesians 6:4 (ESV)
4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
This task has been given to us fathers as the leaders of the home.
We cannot simply give this over to our wives, we are to be the one’s “leading” the teaching.
Father’s must also discipline children for the sake of Christ.
Again let’s look at Ephesians 6:4.
Ephesians 6:4 (ESV)
4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
The proverb writer could not say it any clearer than in Proverbs 13:24.
Proverbs 13:24 (ESV)
24 Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
Discipline is not about hurting a child physically it is about removing the foolishness from a child so that they are able to make wise decisions about God.
15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
15 The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.
13 Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. 14 If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.
Summary
Summary
When fathers teach their children God’s precious word and then discipline them based on God’s word this is when a child is provided spiritually by their father.
Fathers who do this are preparing their children for eternity not this moment in time.
Lastly blessed fathers are…
The Right Husband
The Right Husband
Godly Fathers Are Husbands.
Godly Fathers Are Husbands.
I understand there are circumstances where this statement has its limitations.
A man’s wife could choose this world over him and the children leaving a godly father as one not a husband (1 Corinthians 7:15).
The first point I am wanting to make here is that men are not to become fathers outside the bond of marriage.
What used to be seen as common sense here has become uncommon sense.
63 % of black homes are single-mother homes where no father is in the child lives.
40% of white homes are now single-mother homes where no father is in the child lives.
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
The second point I am wanting to make here is that fathers are to be “husbands” first.
That means “dads” that our first priority is our wife and then our kids.
Far too many family become chaotic because children are placed above the husband and wife relationship.
This is apparent in Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus.
26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Summary
Summary
When boys and girls grow up seeing how a husband and wife biblically treat each other, they will grow up treating their husband or wife the same.
Children must see their father love, defend, and help their mother in get to heaven.
Conclusion
Conclusion
v
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
