A Wise Father

Lead Vocalist (Kelly)

Welcome & Announcements (Jason)

Good morning family!

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Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Deut. 6:4-7)

Prayer of Praise (Mendi Keatts)

As for Me and My House

Leaning On The Everlasting Arms

Prayer of Confession (Jeremy Collins), Foolishness

Assurance of Pardon (James 1:5)

Christ Our Wisdom

Scripture Reading (Proverbs 3:1-12)

You can find it on page _________ in the black Bibles

Pastoral Prayer (Jason)

Prayer for PBC—Dads, spiritual dads and dads-to-be

Prayer for kingdom partner—Southern Baptist Convention

Prayer for US—Against fatherlessness

Prayer for the world—Argentina

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

START TIMER!!!

I don’t know about you, but there’s a long list of things my father did not teach me when I was growing up.

He didn’t teach me how to maintain a vehicle. I still remember a vacation we took when I was a young boy and my father accidentally filled our borrowed vehicle with diesel fuel. Now I’ve never done that, but let’s just say the apple didn’t fall very far from the tree.

He didn’t teach me any common survival skills. I can’t hunt or fish, I can’t start a fire without matches, I can’t identify edible plants in the wild, I can’t navigate without Google Maps. If there’s ever a Zombie Apocalypse, I’ll die in episode one.

He didn’t teach me how to work with my hands. Let’s just say we’re better at breaking things than fixing them.

He DID teach me a bit of lawn maintenance. But mostly what NOT to do. Like, it’s a bad idea to soak your weed-infested garden with gasoline, then light it on fire while you’re standing in the middle of it. True story.

He also taught me how to drive, but according to my wife, and I quote, “you are the worst driver ever.” I don’t know if that’s my dad’s fault or mine.

There are plenty of things my father didn’t teach me, but he taught me the most important thing. He taught me the truth about God.

The most important thing you must teach your children is the truth about God.

That’s the Big idea I hope to communicate with God’s help this morning.

If you’re not already there, please turn in your Bibles to Proverbs 3.

Next week we will resume our study of the Nicene Creed, but I wanted to take advantage of Father’s Day to teach our fathers this morning.

We don’t typically break away from whatever we’re studying to address every cultural celebration like this, but occasionally it’s appropriate to do so.

In the passage Jason just read a moment ago, King Solomon is instructing his grown son in the ways of wisdom.

Typically when I’ve read this passage or heard it taught, it’s from the perspective of the son. We want to be like the son who trusts in the Lord with all his heart and honors the Lord with his wealth.

But today I want us to consider this passage from the perspective of the father. Solomon here is an example to us of what a wise father will continually teach his children.

There are six couplets in this passage, each couplet is two verses long. In the odd-numbered verses we see a truth the father is teaching his son, and in the even-numbered verses we see a blessing that will result from the son’s obedience.

From Solomon’s example, I want you to notice Six Truths About God we Must Teach Our Children:

In verses 1-2, we learn to Teach them God’s Word.

In verses 3-4, we learn to Teach them God’s Love.

In verses 5-6, we learn to Teach Them God’s Sovereignty.

In verses 7-8, we learn to Teach Them God’s Holiness.

In verses 9-10, we learn to Teach Them God’s Worth.

And in verses 11-12, we learn to Teach Them God’s Discipline.

That’s the ground we’ll be covering this morning, Lord willing.

Before we dive in, let me say a brief word to a few groups here.

If you’re not a Christian, your greatest need is to believe these truths about God.

If you don’t have children, whether you’re young or old, these truths still apply. You’re called to know these truths so you can make disciples!

If you’re a mom, this message isn’t just for dads. Proverbs honors a mother’s teaching as well, and you too are called to teach your kids about God.

And if you’re a single mom or you’re married to a non-Christian, the burden falls on you here. But you don’t have to carry it alone if you’re a part of a church.

And if you’re a dad: by all means, teach your kids how to ride bikes, change oil, or swing a bat—but more than anything, teach them the truth about God.

First, you must...

1) Teach Them God’s WORD (vv. 1-2)

Proverbs 3:1a—My son, do not forget my teaching,...

That word teaching, is the Hebrew word torah, which is often translated law.

In fact, the word torah is often used to refer to the law of God in the Old Testament.

Even today, Jewish people use the word Torah to refer to the first five books of the Old Testament.

When Solomon talks about “his torah,” his teaching, I believe the implication here is that Solomon has been teaching his son God’s Word.

That’s why he can say with authority to his adult son...

Proverbs 3:1a—…let your heart keep my commandments

To keep the commandments is to obey them.

Solomon isn’t an overbearing father overstepping his authority and nagging his adult son. He can tell his son to obey his commandments because those commandments are from the Word of God!

That idea is even more clear when you look at the promise in...

Proverbs 3:2—for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.

This promise is a clear allusion to a similar promise Moses made to God’s people in...

Deuteronomy 5:33—You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.

Just like in Proverbs 3:2, God promises His people a long life and a good life if they obey His Word.

So what’s the bottom line in these first two verses? A wise father will teach his children God’s Word.

You cannot join Solomon and urge your grown children to cling to the truths you taught them when they were little unless you have taught them the unchanging Word of God!

So for those of you who have young children, how can you begin doing this now?

I urge all the Christian parents in this room to have a regular time of family worship in your home.

This doesn’t have to be as intimidating as it sounds. If your kids are little, pick up a Bible storybook from the bookstall in the kids’ wing and commit to read it to your children 3-4 nights a week. Sing a song about Jesus, then pray when you’re finished.

If your kids are a bit older, reading a story from a kids’ Bible storybook may be a bit too simple for them. Consider reading a Psalm or Proverb every day and talking about it. Or pick a book of the Bible and simply study it together, one paragraph or chapter at a time. Or pick up one of the other resources for family worship available in the bookstall.

Another way to teach your children God’s Word is to have them meaningfully engaged in the life of the church.

Jesus did NOT give the Great Commission to families. He gave it to the church!

Don’t mishear me: I’m not saying moms and dads shouldn’t be teaching and training their children. But I am saying you are a fool if you think you can faithfully make disciples without the local church!

As Kevin DeYoung writes, “The man who attempts Christianity without the church shoots himself in the foot, shoots his children in the leg, and shoots his grandchildren in the heart.” [1]

The goal of our children’s and student ministries at PBC is to come alongside parents as you shepherd your children from lost to leader. But we can’t do that if you and your kids aren’t here.

Having your kids meaningfully involved in the life of the church is a crucial way that you can teach them God’s Word.

So teach your children the truth about God by teaching them God’s Word.

That’s the longest point, but each of the next five builds on that foundation—and we’ll walk through them more briefly.

A wise father will also...

2) Teach Them God’s LOVE (vv. 3-4)

Proverbs 3:3—Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.

Solomon urges his son to have steadfast love and faithfulness always on his heart.

But whose steadfast love and faithfulness is Solomon talking about?

Is he simply asking his son to be loving and faithful himself?

Or is he pointing him to the love and faithfulness of another?

About 500 years before Solomon wrote these words, Moses was on Mount Sinai praying, “God, show me Your glory!” God told Moses, “If you see me you’ll die. But here’s what I’ll do. I’ll hide you in the cleft of the rock and I’ll cover your eyes while I pass by you, and then after I pass by I’ll let you see.”

Notice what God said when He showed Moses a glimpse of His glory...

Exodus 34:6–7—The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Did you catch it? God says I am ABOUNDING in steadfast love and faithfulness.

And what did Solomon urge his son to keep on his heart? Steadfast love and faithfulness.

Solomon isn’t urging his son to find love and faithfulness within himself. He’s not appealing to some inner spark within the soul. He’s not telling him to follow his heart. He’s urging his son to look outside himself to the love of God!

Before we move on, I want you to notice something we just read from that passage in Exodus 34.

God says He “forgiv[es] iniquity and transgression and sin, but [He] will by no means clear the guilty.”

If God cannot clear the guilty, how can He forgive anyone? We need forgiveness because we’re guilty!

The answer is the cross! At the cross God punished our sins by punishing His Son in our place. We can be forgiven because our sins have already been paid in full at the cross!

The way we teach God’s love today is by teaching the gospel!

EXPLAIN THE GOSPEL

Unbeliever: repent and believe!

If you believe this, you need to labor to keep the love of God displayed at the cross of Christ on your heart.

And when you do...

Proverbs 3:4—So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.

Perhaps now is a good time to say something about these promises for rewards in Proverbs.

Is Solomon saying that those who keep God’s love on their hearts will always find favor and good success in the sight of God and man?

What about Christians who are fired for being too vocal about their faith? Or what about the countless men and women who have died for the sake of Christ? Did they really find “good success in the sight of man”?

In his commentary on Proverbs, Bruce Waltke writes, “A proverb represents the truth but not the whole truth. Proverbs that promise health and wealth must be balanced by other proverbs that qualify these promises.” [2]

This is why even the book of Proverbs itself recognizes that these little pithy sayings must be rightly understood or else they’ll cause damage.

Proverbs 26:9 (CSB)—A proverb in the mouth of a fool is like a stick with thorns, brandished by the hand of a drunkard.

Picture a drunken man, staggering around with a thorny stick in his hand. He’s going to harm people with it. In the same way, it’s easy to harm people if we don’t understand the Proverbs.

This is not a universal promise that knowing God’s love will always lead to health, wealth, and prosperity. But it is generally true that those who rightly understand the love of God will find favor in the world as they model that love to others.

So dads, don’t just teach your children God’s Word. Teach them the gospel.

If I asked your children, “What is the gospel?” could they answer me? Could you?

If the answer to either question is no, make it your ambition to teach them the gospel over and over and over again until they know it backwards and forwards.

As Martin Luther famously said, “The truth of the gospel is the principal article of all Christian doctrine… Most necessary is it, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.” [3]

And if your kids are grown, it’s not too late. Call them. Text them. Ask good questions. Share the Gospel with them. Let them see how the Gospel is still transforming you now.

So teach your children the truth about God by teaching them God’s love revealed in the gospel.

Also...

3) Teach Them God’s SOVEREIGNTY (vv. 5-6)

Proverbs 3:5–6—Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.

Solomon is teaching his son one of life’s most important truths: Don’t trust yourself. Don’t trust your own wisdom. Trust God! In all your ways—whatever you do, whatever happens to you—trust God and He will make your paths straight.

I don’t know about you, but the paths of my life rarely feel straight. More often, they feel like a roller coaster—twisting, looping, and turning sharply in directions I never expected.

The only way God can possibly make my paths straight is if He is sovereign. If He’s in control. If He is able to do what He promises in...

Romans 8:28—And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

This is a promise that doesn’t feel true from a worm’s-eye view. But from a bird’s-eye view we can see how God can draw straight with crooked lines. [4]

I saw an example of this in a conversation with our sister Jane Quilhot a few weeks ago. She told me how God drew her to Himself years ago through the cancer diagnosis of a friend. This woman was a young mom with a few young kids and Jane brought her a meal to serve her during her suffering. Her friend insisted that Jane attend a Bible study with her, and Jane didn’t know how to tell a dying woman “no” so she agreed. And through that Bible study she came to believe in the gospel. I’m sure there were moments when that young mom felt like God wasn’t keeping His promises here. How could God possibly be making her paths straight? Only by looking at her cancer from a bird’s-eye view can we see the good things God was doing, like saving our sister Jane!

Dads, are you teaching your children God’s sovereignty? One of the most important ways you do this is by how you live.

Do you acknowledge God in ALL your ways, or just on Sundays?

Where are you tempted to lean on your own understanding right now instead of trusting God?

Do you say “the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord,” even when life is hard?

Are you teaching your children with your life that God can be trusted, even when His plans don’t make sense?

So teach your children the truth about God by teaching them God’s sovereignty.

Also...

4) Teach Them God’s HOLINESS (vv. 7-8)

Proverbs 3:7–8—Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.

Sin makes us sick. It corrupts our minds, our bodies, and our souls.

And the path to healing isn’t self-improvement. It’s not by being wise in our own eyes.

It’s by fearing the Lord.

The only right response to the holiness of God is the fear of God.

That’s a strange phrase for some of us, but the fear of God is all over the Bible.

I love the way Michael Reeves explains this fear in his book “Rejoice and Tremble:”

“It is not the dread of sinners before a holy Judge. It is not the awe of creatures before their tremendous Creator. It is the overwhelmed devotion of children marvelling at the kindness and righteousness and glory and complete magnificence of the Father. . . . It is an adoration of God that dreads sin itself, not just its punishment, for it has come to treasure God and so loathe all that is ungodly.” [5]

Dads, if you’re going to teach your children to fear God, you can’t shy away from teaching them deep doctrine and tough passages.

You’re going to have to teach them stories like the story of Uzzah from 2 Samuel 6.

King David was transporting the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem on a cart when the oxen stumbled. Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the Ark—and was struck dead by God for touching it.

King David was angry. Couldn’t God see that Uzzah was trying to help? What’s the big deal? Why would God strike a man dead for trying to keep the ark of the covenant from falling into the mud?

Reflecting on this story, R.C. Sproul famously said, “It was an act of arrogance, a sin of presumption. Uzzah assumed that his hand was less polluted than the earth. But it wasn’t the ground or the mud that would desecrate the ark; it was the touch of man. The earth is an obedient creature. It does what God tells it to do. It brings forth its yield in its season. It obeys the law of nature that God has established. When the temperature falls to a certain point, the ground freezes. When water is added to the dust, it becomes mud, just as God designed it. The ground doesn’t commit cosmic treason. There is nothing polluted about the ground.” [6]

If we understand the holiness of God we will “turn away from evil” as the Proverb says.

Almost 200 years ago, the Scottish pastor Robert Murray M’Cheyne famously said, “My people’s greatest need is my personal holiness.”

Dads, your children’s greatest need isn’t good friends, or a good school, or a lot of money, or great vacations, or a college scholarship, or a great athletic career. Their greatest need is your personal holiness.

And you cannot cultivate personal holiness unless you are first personally captivated by the holiness of God.

So teach your children the truth about God by teaching them God’s holiness.

Also...

5) Teach Them God’s WORTH (vv. 9-10)

It is one thing to say, “I believe God’s Word. I know His love, I trust His sovereignty, and I believe He is holy.”

But the real evidence that you believe those truths is how you live.

Do you live in such a way that God’s infinite worth is put on display?

King Solomon shows us how. And he goes straight for the jugular...

Proverbs 3:9–10—Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

Dear Christian, how much do you value Jesus? How much do you value His people? How much do you value the spread of the gospel? One way to measure that is by looking at your bank statements. Do you give sacrificially? Do you give of your firstfruits, or do you give God the leftovers?

The promise in verse 10 for those who give is that God will bless you above and beyond what you give. This is not a prosperity gospel promise that God will literally restore every penny you give away. But you will have what you need. And you will enjoy what you have far more than those who hoard and refuse to give.

What does it look like to teach our children these things?

The fact that Solomon is telling his son to honor God with his wealth implies that his son has also learned to work and save.

So dads, teach your children to work. Teach them to work hard. Teach them to save. And teach them to give.

Teach them that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. Model for them a life that is not consumed and obsessed with stuff. Be a generous giver in front of them, so they can see how it is more blessed to give than to receive.

So teach your children the truth about God by teaching them God’s worth.

Finally...

6) Teach Them God’s DISCIPLINE (vv. 11-12)

Proverbs 3:11–12—My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

These verses help us to properly understand all the promises we’ve already discussed.

We know that life isn’t always peace and favor and straight paths and healing and refreshment and plenty.

Life is often filled with chaos, rejection, twists and turns, sickness, discouragement and need.

Often the reason God’s people endure these hardships is because God is disciplining us. He does this for our good so that we might look more like Jesus.

Dads, don’t teach your children a prosperity theology that says as long as you do everything right God will make you healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Teach them the rewards that generally come when we order our lives according to the Word of God.

But remind them that because none of us can do any of this perfectly, we often experience the pain of discipline.

And dads, you will do your children a tremendous disservice if you fail to discipline them like verse 12 implies.

If He disciplines you in love when you disobey, you too should discipline your children in love when they disobey.

Don’t act as if you can be gentler than your heavenly Father!

Now, the way we discipline our children changes as they grow. But a failure to discipline is a failure to love!

So teach your children the truth about God by teaching them God’s discipline.

Years ago, I was pastoring a small church in a struggling neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky. Every Easter, our church would host an Easter Egg Hunt at a local park for the children in our community. Before the hunt, I’d gather the kids and tell them the story of Jesus—the God who loves them, who sent His Son to die for their sins and rise again.

What amazed me was how little these kids knew about Jesus—many of them growing up right in the heart of the Bible Belt, yet completely unfamiliar with the gospel. But what struck me even more were the parents—especially the dads—standing behind their children, watching. As I spoke about the cross and the empty tomb, I’d occasionally catch the eyes of a father—eyes that suddenly filled with embarassment. Their faces said what their mouths never did: “I know this… but I forgot to teach it to my kids.”

Don’t let that be true of you, dads. The most important thing you must teach your children is the truth about God.

From Proverbs 3, we’ve seen six truths they desperately need to know:

Teach them God’s Word—so they know who God is and why they’re here.

Teach them God’s Love—so they know how they can be in a relationship with God.

Teach them God’s Sovereignty—so they trust Him even when life is hard.

Teach them God’s Holiness—so they fear Him and learn to fight their sin.

Teach them God’s Worth—so they honor Him above wealth, fame, or success.

Teach them God’s Discipline—so they know why sometimes bad things happen to God’s people.

And let me remind you: you don’t have to do this perfectly. You won’t. I don’t.

But you can do this faithfully. And more importantly—you can do this with God's help.

Lean on His grace. Ask for His wisdom. Surround yourself with a church family that will encourage you. Let your kids see you trusting Jesus—confessing sin, seeking help, worshiping freely. Because more than a perfect dad, they need a gospel-shaped dad. A dad who points to the Perfect Father.

And if you’ve failed in the past? Join the club. That’s what the cross is for. There is grace for every dad here—grace to start again, grace to keep going, and grace to finish well.

Let’s be the kind of fathers whose children will rise up and say,

“My dad taught me the truth about God.”

Prayer of Thanksgiving

I Am Not My Own

Baby Dedication Ceremony

Benediction (Numbers 6:24–26)