Four Commitments For Being A Faithful Father

As many of you might be aware, Chick-fil-a is the wealthiest fast-food chain in America right now, with an estimated worth of 14.2 billion dollars. They are known for making a great chicken sandwich and not being open on Sundays.

Taking Sundays off has been a core commitment from Chick-la-a’s inception. It comes from a Truett’s Cathy’s love for Christ and for family.

Cathy raised his family to joyfully advance the kingdom of God by making much of Jesus in the church, community, and home. In his book, “Eat More Chicken: Inspire More People,” Truett Cathy says,

“For us, family, business, and church weren’t separate aspects of our life. They all blended in together. Those early experiences shaped our children’s viewpoints about life and work.” Truett Cathy (Founder of Chick-fil-a)

According to Cathy, Christ is to be honored in everything, especially work and family. These God-honoring convictions were so deep in his commitment to Christ, Chick-fil-a, and his family, that he implored his eldest son to make a covenant with him protecting the business and the family. The covenant reads,

"We will be faithful to Christ's lordship in our lives," the covenant began. "As committed Christians we will live a life of selfless devotion to His calling in our lives."

"We will prayerfully seek His [Christ’s] leadership in all major decisions that impact our family and others. Our family roles as spouses to our lifelong mates, parents to our children, and loving aunts and uncles will be our priority."

The covenant went on to promise to continue to carry on Chick-fil-A's history of philanthropic work, to never open on Sunday, and to grow conservatively, never taking the company public.

As a father who loves Jesus and is trying to teach his children to love Jesus, Truett Cathy stands as an example of a Christ-honoring, God-glorifying father who fought and successfully did the same thing. By all standards he was a great businessman. But even more so, he was a great father because he was committed to making much of Jesus in order to lead his children to the True Father. By all accounts Truett Cathy was a genuinely pious man who loved Jesus and taught his children to love Jesus and to live pure and holy lives.

This morning, God is going to use the first few verses in Job to admonish and encourage our fathers to do the same thing. Through Job’s example, you will see that,

God favors fathers who ritually practice their genuine piety to teach their children pure and holy living.

Job, as a prosperous and pious man, will show you there are four commitment every father should have if he is going to be faithful to God and his family.

Be a Faithful example in Your Piety (Job 1:1)

Job 1:1 ESV

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

The land of Uz is unknown. Genesis 36:28 and Lam 4:21 suggests that Uz might be near Edom in the south. However, Genesis 10:22-23, also suggests it might be near Aram in the north. So, Job was not an Israelite, but he was a man in the east who worshipped Yahweh. Verse 1 describes Job as a man who was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away evil. What you see here is that Job was a genuinely pious man.

What can we learn about Job’s piety?

Jobs piety made him a man of innocence.

His piety meant that he valued God’s purity. That is what is meant by the word “blameless.” The Hebrew word used here indicates purity before God, but not perfection. It is a word used to describe animals that were to be used for sacrifice (Exodus 29:1; Lev 1:3). When the word is appleid to people, it indicates integrity and innocence.

Job’s piety made him a man of integrity.

The word “upright” refers to something that is level, like a plumbline (Isaiah 26:7; Jer 31:9). It indicates honesty and righteousness (Psalm 11:7; Proverbs 11:6). To be upright is to be obedient to God (Exodus 15:26; Deut 6:18).

Jobs piety made him a man of reverent obedience.

Job feared the Lord. The word “fear” carries many meanings in Hebrew. It can include fright and scare. But the fear of the Lord in Job’s context is more of a reverent respect that moved him to obey God. Job was in awe of God, totally devoted to God’s ways. His devotion worked itself out in right living that pleased God.

Job’s piety made him a man of wisdom.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The wise seek the Lord and live, while the fool perishes in his folly. Those who fear the Lord not only walk in his ways, but also turn from evil. Job wisely shunned evil. Robert Alden hits the head of the nail when he says,

“Good people turn to God and away from evil. The good life involves not only the doing of right but also the avoidance of wrong.” Robert Alden

Job was a pious man. Job was wholeheartedly committed to the Lord. He had genuine integrity and walked wisely before God and his neighbor. His piety was not sinless by nay means. Job even acknowledged he was a sinner (Job 13:26; 14:16). But he was consistent and honorable before God. His piety was no notable that God said of Job to Satan,

Job 1:8 (ESV)

“Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”

The bottom line is Job’s piety was sincere. His devotion for God was driven by a love for God that manifested itself in outward piety. His piety was not an outward appearance of godliness that denies the power of God, as Paul tells Timothy 2 Tim 3:5), but an inward reality of godliness in his heart.

What makes Truett Cathy so appealing to me is his outward commitment to his Christian convictions: his commitment to be closed on Sundays, his commitment to God’s design of the family, his desire for his children to covenant with him to protect these convictions, in a world that openly opposes such convictions with hostility. Truett kept true to his piety, even when the world said it would cost him his business.

The Secret to Pious Living

The temptation that many men, and fathers in general experience, is divided loyalty to the Lord. In my short walk as a believer, and as a father, where I have failed in my piety is when I allow one foot to be on the dock of the world while trying to keep my other foot on the untethered boat of God’s kingdom. I am prone to try to hold onto to forbidden things while I am trying to hold onto Christ. It doesn’t work, and my faithfulness to right living looks shoddy. This is not only dangerous to me, but is deadly to my children.

Isaac Rankin says there is a secret to living a pious life, a pure life, a life devoted to God the way Job was devoted to God. Ranken says,

“Living a pure life takes total commitment. Therefore, we must be very careful: what we hold on to will also hold on to us.” Isaac Rankin

Ranken goes on to say,

“Just out of reach from my window stretches a wire which carries a heavy current of electricity for light and power. It is carefully insulated at every pole that supports it, and it is carried well out of common reach.… Yet the doves light (perch) on it and take no harm.… The secret is that when they touch the full-powered wire they touch nothing else. The give themselves wholly to it.

My danger would be that while I touched the wire I should also be touching the earth through the walls of my house, and the current would turn my body into a channel for escape. But they [the doves] rest wholly on the wire and experience neither dread nor danger. They are one with it, and they are safe.”

There lies the secret to a pious life that is blameless and upright, that fears the Lord and shuns evil.

“Your piety, just like the doves safety, is in complete self-surrender to the Lord’s power and love. It is when you reach one hand to Him, while yet you keep fast hold on some forbidden thing with the other, that you are in danger.”

Men, are you holding on to something that is forbidden?

Be faithful in your piety by letting go of forbidden things. be like Job and serve the Lord with a sincere devoted heart that shows your children true piety that is pleasing to God.

Be a Faithful Mediator Toward Your Posterity (Job 1:2; 4-5a)

Job 1:2 ESV

There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.

Your posterity are your children. The Bibles says that a man is blessed if he has a large family. Job had seven sons and three daughters. The numbers seven and three symbolize perfection and completeness. In antiquity, Job had the ideal family; a family of divine favor.

Job’s, being a pious man, made sure his devotion to the Lord was passed onto his posterity, his children. In verses 4-5, you see that Job is concerned with his children’s holiness.

Job 1:4–5 (ESV)

His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.”

If you work backwards, you see that Job was concerned about the state of his children’s heart. The heart was the center of a persons character. Solomon admonishes his son to “guard his heart, for it is the well-spring of life (Proverbs 4:23). Israel was commanded to

Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

and to

Psalm 9:1 ESV

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.

It is in your heart that evil and blasphemies against God occur (Matthew 12:31-34). Job knew this about his own heart, and cared enough for his children to be concerned about it in their heart. They had a form of outward holiness. Their parties were not drunken orgies or scenes of debauchery. He was concerned that his children would curse God, or deny God, or disrespect God in their hearts. It is the kind of curse that his wife told him to do at the loss of everything, and it is the sin that Satan hoped Job would commit under severe testing (Job 1:11; 2:5). It is to have an appearance of godliness but no power of inward godliness. Job did not want his children to be outward pharisees or moralists. He didn’t settle for good behavior. He wanted Law-loving, Holy Living, God-desiring, children who were as genuine in their devotion to Yahweh as he was.

So he took the initiative to rise up in the morning after every party, and consecrate his children, to sanctify them, make them holy.

To atone for the sins of his children, Job had to offer sacrifices from his flock. Sacrifices were part of worship in antiquity before the law was introduced. For example, after the flood receded,

Genesis 8:20 ESV

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Moses asked Pharaoh to have sacrifices and burnt offerings to the Lord (Exodus 10:25).

After the Exodus, however, Moses was given the law and sacrifices were offered as an atonement for sin (Exodus 29:38-41; Lev 1).

What you see happening here is Job, as a faithful father, becomes a faithful mediator between God and his children. A mediator is one who stands in between. In Job’s day there was no mediator between God and man. Speaking of God, Job says

Job 9:33 NIV

If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together,

There was no Christ to intercede on behalf of sinners. Job’s faith is what made him righteous, just like Abraham and Noah. And on behalf of his children, he assumed a mediator role for their sake, before a holy God. he covered all of his children with the blood of lambs until each and every one of them were sufficiently consecrated.

Fathers, do not underestimate the value and necessity of your presence and your place as a mediator and intercessor in the lives of your children. With the absence of so many fathers in the home, and the overwhelming passivity of fathers who are in the home but do nothing to spiritually lead their children, is it any wonder why so many younger generations are gripped by depression and imprisoned by addiction? Why so many have abandon the church or see no relevance for Christ in their life? Could it be that their father’s abandonment and passivity has left them in the spiritual wilderness where Satan has the freedom to afflict them relentlessly?

The prophet Malachi reveals that in the last days there will be separation between fathers and their children (Malachi 4:4-6). Jesus acknowledged that John had fulfilled the Malachi 3:1 prophecy. John was the messenger who came as a herald to announce the arrival the our Messiah King, Jesus. Jesus added that, if the people were willing to receive or accept Him, then John would have also fulfilled the Malachi 4:6 role of Elijah (Matt 11:13-15). But because the nation did not accept the King and the kingdom He offered, the kingdom was postponed, and Jesus said there would be division—that households would be divided and fathers and children would be set against each other (Luke 12:51–53). That is what we are seeing right now. Father’s hearts are turned away from their children. Children’s hearts are turned away from their fathers. Father’s are living self-serving lives, showing no compassion and being unfaithful to their posterity.

Dan Cathy, Truett Cathy’s eldest son, said that his dad was both his Sunday School teacher and his boss in an interview with The Business Insider. Yes, and Amen! Cathy stood “in between” for his children, much like Job did for his children.

Fathers, is your heart turned toward your children?

Are you standing in between like a mediator-intercessor for your children?

Be a Faithful Witness with Your Prosperity (Job 1:3)

Job 1:3 ESV

He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.

Job was a very wealthy man. Wealth in the ancient days was often measured by live stick and servants. Once again, you see the numbers seven and 3; seven thousand sheep and three-thousand camels, plus five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred female donkeys. With all of that live stock, he was blessed to have many servants to help him care for everything. Having seven sons and three daughters with seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels, Job was the picture of divine prosperity. It was evident that god’s favor was on this man. Job had land, seed, and blessing, something very similar to what God promised Abraham in Genesis 15:1-5.

Satan looked at Job’s wealth and saw it as the means for Job’s faithfulness. When God says

Job 1:8 (ESV)

“Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”

Satan’s response is,

Job 1:9 ESV

Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason?

Job 1:10 ESV

Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

Satan is convinced that the only reason why Job is devoted to God is because God has blessed Job with great prosperity. Satan says, “take it all away and Job will curse you to your face (Job 1:11). God knows Job’s heart and knows that Job genuinely loves him and serves him. So, God allows Satan to take all of his prosperity away from him. When I say all of his prosperity, I mean Satan was allowed to take Job’s great wealth and his ideal perfect family (Job 1:12-19). Job who was once the wealthiest man in the east became the most impoverished man in a matter of moments.

Men who build their identity in their work or in their wealth or in their children, would cower and curse God at such unwarranted tragedy. That is what Satan was counting on for Job. And had Job been a hypocrite, Job would’ve cursed God and died. We saw this in 2008, when the economy collapsed. People were jumping off buildings in New York and San Francisco. Our grandparents saw the same thing onOctober 29, 1929, Black Tuesday. Share prices on the New York Stock Exchange completely collapsed, spurring on the Great Depression that lasted ten years.

Job responds to such calamity not as we expect,

Job 1:20–21 ESV

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Job tore his clothes and shaved his head in grief. Understandable. But the next move was almost unimaginable to most of us. Job fell down and worshiped the very God who allowed everything to be taken from him. He surrendered to the sovereignty of God and submitted to his difficult will. Instead of cursing God, Job blessed God. Job revealed his true character, his true piety. Job was not a hypocrite. He was a genuine lover of God and he proved it by holding on loosely to his prosperity.

Jobs identity and hope was not in his wealth or even his children. Suffering proved Job’s true devotion was to God alone. He was able to faithfully testify to the world that the Lord gives abundantly, praise him for his generosity. The Lord also takes away abruptly and sometimes without explanation, praise him for his sovereignty.

Fathers, do your children see you as a faithful witness of your prosperity?

Do your life and all that God has blessed you with, testify in such away that your children believe you would respond like Job if everything was taken away from you?

Be Faithful in Your Practice (Job 1:5b)

Job 1:5 (ESV)

Thus Job did continually.

Literally, this could be translated, “So thus he used to do on a regular basis all of the days.” Job made a holy habit of consecrating and interceding for his children. It was not a one and done deal. His commitment to his children’s holiness was not sporadic or erratic. It was intentional and calculated. He invested his time and energy and resources all the time, until he had to burry all of his children. He never stopped praying and disciplining, and mediating on their behalf.

One of the greatest problems I see in the church among men today, especially fathers, is a lack of stamina in their commitment to shepherd their families. Men have grown to quiet and complacent in the church, and that effect is felt in the home. At best you get excited for about six weeks, then you fall off and neglect your spiritual responsibilities for months on end. At worst, you haven’t set any example of spiritual leadership. Your wife suffers. Your children suffer. Your community suffers. Your church suffers. If revival is going to take place in the church, community, and home, it will happen when the men make it a practice, a commitment to be faithful in their practice of piety, faithful toward their posterity, and faithful with their prosperity.

Jesus helps you be a faithful father.

Job is a remarkable example of a father who ritually practiced his genuine piety that served as a catalyst for his children’s pure and holy living. But Job’s example is not sufficient enough to help you be a committed father to your children. Job’s devotion to God and his family points you to someone greater than Job.

Job’s piety points to one who was perfectly holy and blameless. Job’s faithfulness to his posterity as a mediator who had to keep interceding for his children, points you to the one great mediator who died once and all for your sin, who was the perfect priest and sacrifice that satisfied God’s wrath, atoned for your sin, and who ascended into heaven where he continuously intercedes on your behalf. Job’s faithfulness with his prosperity points you to one who left his riches in heaven to become poor so that you might become rich with his grace and righteousness. Job’s consistent practice of always consecrating and interceding for his children points you to the one whose life, death, resurrection, and ascension secures your salvation with his own Spirit to ensure nothing will ever take you out of his hand. Job’s devotion to God and his children points you to God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Father’s there is the secret to Fathering your children well. Just like the doves resting solely on the electric power line, so you must rest in the work and power of Jesus. It is his salvation and his Spirit that will help you be a commited father, a faithfully pious father, a faithful mediator who habitually and consistently prays for and disciples his children, a faithful father who holds on loosely to this worlds riches but clings to Christ and the kingdom of God, and a faithful father who will remain faithful for all the days the Lord grants him.

Christ was Truett Cathy’s source faithfulness to His children. He kept Jesus at the forefront of everything he did. Christ was at the center of his piety and faithfulness to his posterity even with such great prosperity. He habitually and consistently taught his children to cling to Jesus until the day he died. yes, he was a great businessman. But through the lens of God’s kingdom, he was an even greater father who pointed his children to the One true Father, though the hope of salvation given through Jesus Christ.

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