What Father's Should Be

Open—Story about the boat that wasn't tied up to the dock that well. You don't have to look up stream for the boat.

This passage tells us how we should pray and as it does it tells us of what kind of Heavenly Father we have. As we are created in His image it tells us of how we as fathers should be as well as what we should be.

Luke 11:9–13 NKJV

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

I. Fathers Should Be Persistent

9-10

A. In Asking

1. Asking for our Heavenly Fathers help

2. Asking our children about their needs

B. In Seeking

1. The Heavenly Father’s answers

2. A deeper relationship our children

Ill—In Facing the giants the boy who became the team’s kicker wanted to give up. His dad was persistent in telling him not to give up.

II. Fathers Should Be Providers

(11-12)

A. Providing Sincerely

1. Truly caring for your children’s needs

2. Truly doing what is best (even if it hurts)

B. Providing Sacrificially

1. Of self

2. Of possessions

Ill—J. Wilbur Chapman, perhaps the finest evangelist the Presbyterian church has known, once told in a message that he had just heard of a father who came into the bedroom where his young son lay dying. The boy had been ill for so long that his body was badly wasted. It was painful for him even to lie on the bed. As the father entered, the boy said, "Daddy, lift me up for a moment." The father put his hands under the emaciated body and raised his son just a little off the bed. "Lift me higher," he said, "Daddy, lift me higher." The father lifted him up until he held him above his head. When he took him down, the boy was dead. It would seem as if that father had actually lifted his son into the very arms of Christ. When Dr. Chapman concluded the service, a man came up to him with tears in his eyes and said, "Dr. Chapman, it happened just as you said. I went into his room. My minister was with me, I lifted him up, and his weak voice came back to me in whispers saying, "Higher, Daddy, higher." When I took him down, he had gone. But, sir, I had lifted him into the arms of Christ long before, for when he was a very small boy I taught him of a Savior's love, and told him what it means to be a Christian."

III. Fathers Should Be Purposeful

(13)

A. In Why They Give

1. To help children become what they were crated to be

2. To fulfil duty as a father

B. In What They Give

1. It should be to help improve them

2. We should not spoil by giving all they want

Close—A young man was to be sentenced to the penitentiary. The judge had known him from childhood, for he was well acquainted with his father--a famous legal scholar and the author of an exhaustive study entitled, "The Law of Trusts." "Do you remember your father?" asked the magistrate. "I remember him well, your honor," came the reply. Then trying to probe the offender's conscience, the judge said, "As you are about to be sentenced and as you think of your wonderful dad, what do you remember most clearly about him?" There was a pause. Then the judge received an answer he had not expected. "I remember when I went to him for advice. He looked up at me from the book he was writing and said, 'Run along, boy; I'm busy!' When I went to him for companionship, he turned me away, saying "Run along, son; this book must be finished!' Your honor, you remember him as a great lawyer. I remember him as a lost friend." The magistrate muttered to himself, "Alas! Finished the book, but lost the boy!"

Homemade, February, 1989.