A Good Good Father 2025-06-15

Happy Fathers Day!

A day where :

Food,

Sports and

Getting Together

are big things!

I found a list of 12 reasons it’s Good to be a man

1: Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.

2: A 5-day holiday requires only one suitcase.

3: When clicking through the channels,

you don’t have to pause on every channel with somebody crying.

4: Guys in hockey masks

don’t attack you ...

unless you’re playing hockey.

5: You only need 2 or 3 pairs of shoes.

6: Car mechanics

tell you the truth.

7: You can admire Clint Eastwood without

starving yourself to look like him.

8: Gray hair and wrinkles only add character to men.

9. We can do our nails

during 1 traffic light.

10: If another guy shows up at the party

in the same outfit,

we just might become

life long friends!

11: The occasional loud belch is OK

practically expected.

and # 12

12. We get to be Dads and Grandpas!

It’s great to be a man, and

it’s great to be a dad!

[sermon central Contributed by Gene Gregory on Jul 18, 2007 (message contributor))

Amen Men?

Spectrum of Dads

I have no doubt,

I could bring a white board out and most of us could have a lot of fun listing

good things about our dads, trying to top one another, who has/had the best dad.

I equally have no doubt,

we could bring out another white board and list

our disappointments,

our shock and horror over some of the

dumb or just

plain bad things we endured from our fathers.

Most fathers are/were in the middle,

neither extremely great nor

extremely bad

but today I am looking for a Good Good Father

I picture my Don Dad, as a good father.

When he passed away,

I tried to write a tribute to him,

but every time I started to write

my disappointments came to mind instead.

such as . . .

I played basketball, at Fort Jones High School my senior year and

dad came . . .

to ONE game.

ONE GAME!

He spoke to me later and said

“You know I don’t enjoy these games much,

do you mind if I stay home?”

My dad, bless his heart,

he knew as a dad, you are supposed to support your kids

but my dad and his circle of friends were pretty self focused,

so it was easy for him to say

He didn’t really want to come to my games.

And I, being ever so kind and understanding ,

I told him that’s fine.

But it wasn’t fine,

it hurt my heart.

So in writing this tribute of my great dad,

that event came to mind.

but I tried again,

and some other disappointment came to mind.

I kept trying and write something great about Dad

and kept failing.

Finally I figured out,

the one thing that made my dad great was

his love for me.

I don’t know what kind of dad you have or

what kind of Dad you had but

one thing I know is that in Christ we all have a great Dad

Who loves us.

We are going to hear more about him today!

Dads in the Bible

What kind of Dad’s do we find in the Bible?

I thought about this and King David came to mind.

King David

King David had a bunch of wives and many many children too.

What kind of father was he?

Maybe a loving but un-involved father.

One of his sons, Ammon

Got Love Sick over his step-sister Tamar.

His friend helped him with a scheme to get her alone

and he raped her, then humiliated her.

King David was angry

but did nothing!

2 Samuel 13:21–33 ESV

21 When King David heard of all these things, he was very angry. 22 But Absalom spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad, for Absalom hated Amnon, because he had violated his sister Tamar. 23 After two full years Absalom had sheepshearers at Baal-hazor, which is near Ephraim, and Absalom invited all the king’s sons. 24 And Absalom came to the king and said, “Behold, your servant has sheepshearers. Please let the king and his servants go with your servant.” 25 But the king said to Absalom, “No, my son, let us not all go, lest we be burdensome to you.” He pressed him, but he would not go but gave him his blessing. 26 Then Absalom said, “If not, please let my brother Amnon go with us.” And the king said to him, “Why should he go with you?” 27 But Absalom pressed him until he let Amnon and all the king’s sons go with him. 28 Then Absalom commanded his servants, “Mark when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, ‘Strike Amnon,’ then kill him. Do not fear; have I not commanded you? Be courageous and be valiant.” 29 So the servants of Absalom did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king’s sons arose, and each mounted his mule and fled. 30 While they were on the way, news came to David, “Absalom has struck down all the king’s sons, and not one of them is left.” 31 Then the king arose and tore his garments and lay on the earth. And all his servants who were standing by tore their garments. 32 But Jonadab the son of Shimeah, David’s brother, said, “Let not my lord suppose that they have killed all the young men, the king’s sons, for Amnon alone is dead. For by the command of Absalom this has been determined from the day he violated his sister Tamar. 33 Now therefore let not my lord the king so take it to heart as to suppose that all the king’s sons are dead, for Amnon alone is dead.”

Perhaps King David’s favoritism of his first born son Amnon, kept him from doing his duty in leading the family and the kingdom, his duty to punish Amnon.

Then I considered Moses,

He rescued the whole nation of Israel out of Egypt under God’s leading.

Moses went off doing all his ministry and left his family behind until his father in law brought them back to him.

Exodus 18:1–5 NIV

1 Now Jethro, the priest of Midian and father-in-law of Moses, heard of everything God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. 2 After Moses had sent away his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro received her 3 and her two sons. One son was named Gershom, for Moses said, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land”; 4 and the other was named Eliezer, for he said, “My father’s God was my helper; he saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.” 5 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, together with Moses’ sons and wife, came to him in the wilderness, where he was camped near the mountain of God.

Why did Moses send his wife and children back to his father in law?

Was it because over their fight when Zipporah had to circumcise their sons before God killed Moses for neglecting this duty.

what did she call him

Exodus 4:25 NIV

25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said.

Sounds like an arguement, was that when and why he sent her off?

Did he send her off out of shame for having a foreign wife?

We don’t know.

Some scholers believe Aaron advised Moses not to bring his family into that Egyptian conflict for their safety.

We don’t have the full picture but it appears Moses may have failed his wife and children while persuing his ministry.

Jephthah

Jephthah was an Old Testament Judge

In Judges chapter 11 he makes a stupid vow

He was going to war

a major battle was lining up and he

Declared this vow

Judges 11:30–31 NIV

30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

I don’t know what he was thinking, when Jephthah made that vow.

I would like to think there was a beloved Dog

or pet goat that was always first out of the house

and he was intending to sacrifice that animal,

not a true family member.

In the days of Moses, God made it very clear,

he forbade his worshipers to sacrifice there children.

The Canaanites in their worship of Molech, would sacrifice children to Molech.

God said in .

Leviticus 18:21 NIV

21 “ ‘Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

Deuteronomy 12:31 NIV

31 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

Years later Jeremiah records that in his time, children were being sacrificed to Baal, the crop fertility god.

Jeremiah 19:5 NIV

5 They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.

So it wasn’t normal for a Jew to vow to sacrifice his son.

It was a harsh and foolish vow.

What kind of father would let his child die, so he doesn’t get in trouble breaking his foolish vow?

There is arguement amoung scholars, whether she was made a burnt offering,

or weather she was dedicated to the Lord,

more or less the first jewish nun.

In verses 36- 40 she and here friends lament for two months, that she will never marry, not that she will die.\

So this would belike Samuel,

dedicated to the Lord.

Whatever was her outcome, the dad made a foolish vow.

I believe,

he should have done all that was within his power to rescue his daughter from his foolish action.

Someone may ask, why didn’t God stop Jephthah from making a foolish vow?

Free will.

Does he stop you and me from making bad choices

choices that effect the people around us?

NO.

It certainly is a great example

of the heartache foolish words can cause.

So we have looked at 3 men of the bible

and, we just haven’t covered any

Good

Good

Fathers.

The Good Good Father

The very first father, was a Good Good Father.

He had two grown children that worked in his garden.

He would visit with them in the cool of the evening.

They had a lot of freedom.

If fact they only had one rule.

Genesis 2:17 NIV

17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

God, could have prevented them from touching the tree.

God, could have posted many guards and made it impossible

for them to disobey him.

But instead he let them make their own choices.

They disobeyed,

even though they were not evil by nature

and that one act of disobidience meant they had to go.

They could not live anymore in the garden of Eden any more

Genesis 3:22 NIV

22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

Living forever, without a chance at redemption,

is aweful. it is the faith of the demons.

God could not allow that to happen

so he kicks them out of the garden.

God provided clothing for them,

He gave them a way to commune with him with annual sacrifices

but this was nothing compared to the

daily walks and talks they used to have with Him.

God, the Father went out of his was to help them and their children regain the relationship they had lost,

He gave them a way to be saved from eternal separation from Him.

He sent Jesus, his only Begotten son, to save them.

ONE of Jesus stories is titled by us as the Parable of the Lost Son

But considering what kind of Father God is to us, Today, we might just call it the Parable of the Good Good Father.

Luke 15:11–32 NIV

11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. 25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”

Allows Mistakes

The first thing I see, is that this Good Good father, who is representing God our father

He alows his son to make a mistake.

He gives his son his inheritence early,

so he can go off and make his mistakes.

and suffer his own consequences.

as fathers, we never want to give a children too much freedom,

but we usually recognize that sometimes consequences will teach better than words.

Moms and dad, usually don’t let children play catch with knives or juggle running chainsaws.

When the child won’t take no for an answer, we sometimes giver their little hands a sharp stinging slap or

even let them touch that hot stove briefly,

because we learn so much quicker from Consequence than scoldings.

A good father lets his children make appropriate mistakes.

A Good Father Celebrates Right Turns!

The Son, waiste all his money

He starts to go hungry

He finds work but is still hungry

He comes to his senses

He choses to return to the father

And guess who has be watching and waiting for him

all this time?

THE FATHER !!!!!!!!!!

The father can see by his actions that his son is repentant and he celebrates that the son has returned.

No hint of shaming or blaiming, just

Son, I’m so glad you are back with us!

A good good Father celebrates:

right turns,

right moves,

right relationships.

Calls All His Children to Reconciliation

When the father learns the other son is outside the party

pitching a fit

he goes to him and encourages

the other son to rejoice that his lost brother is back.

but the Father won’t force this grown son to be nice

he is gonna make his own mistakes

suffer the consequences and

maybe be driven back to the father and the family too.

illus

Chuch Swindoll tells the story of a boy

sent by a drunken father to buy something at a store.

Somehow the lad lost the money and he dared not go home,

for when drunk his father got dreadfully angry about the slightest thing.

A man who saw the boy shivering in a doorway learned of his trouble and gave him the dollar he had lost.

Thanking the kind stranger the boy went off to the store,

but suddenly he turned back and looking wistfully at the man said,

"I wish’t you was my father!"

He had just caught a glimpse of the difference it would make to have a good father

instead of a drunken one. 

Application

What kind of Father, or Mother, son or daughter, grandpa or gramma are you today?

with God’s help, what kind would you like to be?

Will you be involved in their lives? if so tell that to God.

Will you allow them to fall on their faces? if so tell that to God.

Will you celebrate their victories? if so tell that to God.

Will you celebrate how God Fathers you? if so tell him.

Let’s Pray.