Biblical Fathers
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
The family is at best "under attack" and at worst "being destroyed" as we look across the world over especially here in America.
The family has been systematically pulled apart, however there are indications that 13 to 24 year olds are recognizing the need to family.
A survey was conducted by MTV and the Associated Press recently. The question that was asked is "What makes you happy?" It was open so they could answer however they wanted.
Most would think...sex, drugs, friends, music…
The number one answer "spending time with family."
It would appear that now is the time to let young men and women know how God expects families to act. To let parents know how to biblically parent.
Only God can tell us how to make the most out of this life and that includes the family.
The best part about the family is that God has shown us how a biblical family should be run i.e., he has given us the perfect pattern to follow.
With this in mind let’s examine our lessons today on “Biblical Fathers.”
God Provides For His Family
God Provides For His Family
He Provides For The Physical Needs.
He Provides For The Physical Needs.
He knows our physical needs and "provides" for them.
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? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
He knows our physical needs and provides “good things” for them.
8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,
With God the Father being our great example, fathers also ought to take care of and provide for the physical needs of their children.
This means maintaining financial support i.e., the father is to be the breadwinner of the family and I know this isn’t culturally acceptable but it is biblical.
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.
This, as we discussed in our lesson on mothers, allows your kids mother to make a home as she is biblically supposed to do (Proverbs 31:16-18, 24; Titus 2:4-5).
If this is reversed and not as God designed it there will not by biblical harmony in the home.
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.
Again this isn’t inequality.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
These are simply the biblical roles God created each to fulfill in each other’s lives in the family.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Not only does the Father demonstrate to earthly fathers how to take care of his family physically God also shows how…
He Provides For The Spiritual Needs.
He Provides For The Spiritual Needs.
He knows our spiritual needs and provides for them.
Man is built/created in such a way as to "need" to know certain things.
We were created with a soul & thus, we search out certain questions like...
Who am I?
Why am I here?
Is there something after this life?
Our Father answers all these spiritual questions for us through his word.
Who am I?
We are God’s creation.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
Why am I here?
To be loved by God.
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
To love God.
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.”
Is there something after this life?
Yes!!!
2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”
Like God the Father, earthly fathers are also to provide for their children’s spiritual needs teaching them God’s precious word.
Father’s must teach these vital answers to their children so as to give their children the knowledge they need to “not only feed on the meat of God’s word” (Hebrews 5:14) but to fend off Satan (Ephesians 6:10-20).
4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Summary
Summary
God knows and provides for our physical and spiritual needs and earthly fathers must follow the lead of their heavenly Father.
This is vital to the physical and spiritual heath of children.
God not only provides answers to his children but we also find that…
God Trains His Family
God Trains His Family
He Trains His Family In Righteousness.
He Trains His Family In Righteousness.
In every aspect of righteousness God has trained his children.
All aspects of godly living have been given to us through God’s word.
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
God trained his children in modesty.
21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
42 You shall make for them linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh. They shall reach from the hips to the thighs; 43 and they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister in the Holy Place, lest they bear guilt and die. This shall be a statute forever for him and for his offspring after him.
8 “When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine.
Too many fathers seem to ignore things like training their daughters and sons in modesty.
How many fathers have told their daughters or sons that they there are some clothes too immodest for church services but that they can wear them out in public like school or somewhere else.
God trained his children in being good stewards.
Under the Old Law we find tithing.
30 “Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord. 31 If a man wishes to redeem some of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it. 32 And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman’s staff, shall be holy to the Lord.
Under the New Law we find cheerful giving.
7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Father’s ought to be training their children that everything belongs to God and that nothing is ours.
Everything we have belongs to God and thus we should be so grateful for such.
14 “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.
Children need to see fathers put God first financially and trust in God to provide.
Not only does God the father train through his children in godliness we also find…
He Trains Through Discipline.
He Trains Through Discipline.
God the Father disciplines those whom he loves.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
Far too many fathers today are afraid to discipline their children.
Father’s training your children through discipline is vital to their physical and spiritual wellbeing.
15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
24 Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
I asked a friend of mine that has a boy and a girl both teenagers how his kids turned out as great as they did. His daughter is 16 and we were there a week and never once did she even talk back to her dad or mom but was very respectful as was their son who was a few years younger but behaved the same. He said "You just have to not care what anyone thinks and do what God says about disciplining your kids which can only be fully accomplished by using the proverbial rod."
Fathers this isn’t abuse it is love.
Summary
Summary
If God the Father deems it important to train us in righteousness and discipline so to should we fathers deem it right and proper in our families.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Albert Einstein once said "Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means."
God the Father has given us the perfect example of how a father should biblically be, let us then live up to that example to the best of our ability not afraid of this old sinful world but of our heavenly Father.
28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
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.
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.