Characteristics of a Godly Dad
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· 24 viewsPaul gives 5 characteristics that a believer needs to possess as he concludes this epistle. These characteristics are vital to being a Godly Dad.
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Introduction
Talk about how the world views dads.
13 Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
14 Let all that you do be done in love.
13 Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
14 Let all that you do be done in love.
1. Be Alert!
This phrase is used over 20 times in the New Testament.
It is a call for all believers to be spiritually awake instead of being spiritually indifferent or spiritually listless.
Have you ever heard about a listless ship? It is basically a ship that has no control over itself. It is controlled by the winds and waves that are around it. Don’t be listless.
The dangers of being spiritually indifferent and listless are recounted by Paul in this epistle. They include ....
Substituting human wisdom for God’s word ()
Being divisive instead of uniting ()
Being Immoral ()
law-suit happy ()
Perverted ideas of marriage an sexual relations ()
Being self-indulgent ()
Indifferent to the welfare of others ()
Not understanding or using one’s spiritual gifts ()
Unloving ()
These characteristics will creep into our lives if we are not alert!
We need to be alert to against the enemy Satan!
8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.
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We need to be alert for temptations.
38 “Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Mark
We must be alert to apathy and indifference
1 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.
2 ‘Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God.
3 ‘So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.
21 for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk.
We must be alert for false teachers.
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
We must be alert in our prayers.
38 “Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,
We must be alert to the coming of Jesus.
42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.
2. Stand faithful!
What faith are we to stand on? It is what we know as the Christian faith.
It is important to live by a code.
(Watch Shannon/Gibbs Video)
As believers our code, our faith that we stand on, is found in God’s Word.
It is more than our proclamation of faith in Jesus. It is the steps of obedience, the code of conduct, found in God’s Word.
Understand this believer, Satan can not steal away your saving faith, but he can steal away the code of conduct of our faith, i.e. God’s Eternal Truth found in the Bible.
The truth of God’s Word is what we are called to faithfully stand on. Anything else will cause us to fall.
(Show slide of Spray Rig)
If we don’t stand firmly on the truth of God’s Word, we will slip into wrong thinking, wrong belief, and wrong behavior.
Keep in mind Paul’s warning in
14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;
Know what God’s Word says, so that you can stand faithful!
3. Be a Man!
What is Paul saying here? For us here today, he is telling us to be men.
Now, it is not being men according to the world and culture. That always changes.
Instead, we are called to be men of God.
Our faith is to be courageous and our faith is to be mature.
An aspect of being a man of God, or a woman of God, is having a courageous maturity.
Just as the Corinthians needed to grow up in their faith, so do we.
They chose to remain immature, when they were called to grow!
1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ.
2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able,
To be honest, we have chose to remain spiritually immature as well when we are called by God, and compelled by the love of Christ, to grow in our faith.
We grow in our maturity by desiring God’s Word and living it out!
2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,
4. Be Strong!
Paul is not talking about physical muscles, but inner spiritual strength.
A key aspect of gaining inner spiritual strength is by us submitting our lives to Jesus!
We can only be strong spiritually when we trust in God’s strength.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
You can fight temptation when you are spiritually strong.
You don’t fight with your physical strength, or mental strength.
It is only by spiritual strength that we win over our temptations.
Just as our physical muscles grow by using them, so does our inner strength grows as we use it.
10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously
We gain spiritual strength through self-sacrifice, self-denial, and discipline.
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5. Do it all in love!
The love that God wants us to exhibit, Christian love, compliments and balances all these characteristics.
Just like the Corinthians, we as believers need to grow and exhibit Christian love.
8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.
This love comes only from God. It is a characteristic that we belong to Him.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The characteristics of a Godly Dad are just characteristics that all of us as believers should have.
Men, if we have, and grow, these characteristics in our lives, we can transform our families, our church, and our community.
Men, will you commit to live these characteristics out? Will you commit do seek ways to grow in these areas of your life?