Sermons and Devotionals from Merced

FATHER’s day

Thesis: Everyday is Father’s day concerning our spiritual Father. If we are considerate children we will honor Him daily. If we are wise children we will learn to mirror his likeness, striving to be the best fathers we can become during this short stay on earth.

Introduction: Last week I was listening to the radio at work when an ad for fathers day come on the air. The lead into the commercial stated something to the effect, “Our friend, our teacher, our father.” I thought to myself what a great comparison this is to our heavenly Father. Jesus calls us friends in John 15:15 because He made known to us everything he heard from the Father, we were no longer strangers. Our spiritual father taught his children with the old testament as stated in Romans 15:4, and everyone knows He is our Father. There are a great number of scriptures that attests to this fact, to many to list.

1. God; the great example to follow.

A. 1) What is a father? What are the characteristics a good father would display and what does it mean to be a father? I asked these questions to my wife and three daughters and had them write down their answers. I didn’t think this would be too risky because I know them very well. Thank God I was right.

2) My wife wrote, as if she was talking to my daughters, “A father is someone that has spent his fatherhood; loving, caring, teaching, watching, overseeing, and forgiving. No matter where you are or how far you have moved away, or if you got upset with him because you didn’t think he understood what you were going through, he is a father, your father, and he understands. No matter what is said, done, or where you are, he loves you. Even if he is not standing right next to you, you are always in his heart just like he is in yours.”

3) One daughter writes, “Fathers are willing to listen, and willing to help you learn life’s lessons. He is ready to drop what he is doing so he can help you to realize your potential. Fathers are also quick to point out your mistakes but are just as quick to forgive you. He never loses faith in his children, never stops worrying about you, and is always wanting you to strive for greater heights.”

4) Another writes, “A father is someone who cares for you so deeply that no matter where you are, you could feel the love inside you where-ever you go.”

5) And finally one daughter writes, “Fathers are always there when you need them. He is a teacher and a role model. He tells you about the mistakes you make so you won’t make the same mistakes twice.”

6) This is a pretty good exercise to do. You can recognize your child’s needs, and through communication your child can recognize your needs too.

7) My own thoughts on the subject are; a father is loving, caring, and considerate,--a teacher, a trainer, and a friend, --honorable, unselfish, patient, and someone that corrects us when we make mistakes. What it means to be a father is to be a provider. Not only of shelter and food but of time, patients and understanding. The good father will be available to listen, talk, and direct his child to the best of his ability. I’m sure other attributes can be expressed but these stand out the most, in my mind, at this time.

8) We are the luckiest people on the face of God’s great earth. We have before us the greatest example to follow, our holy Father, God. Let us take a look at the love God has for His only begotten Son and see if we can recognize the father son relationship.

9) Turn your Bibles to Colossians 1:13-19 13) He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14) in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 15) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16) For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, weather thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17) And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18) And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

Notice that He is the Son of His love: Not only does He love His Son, He loves us too, so much so that He sacrifices His son so we will have redemption through His blood.

He is the image of the invisible God: Jesus put Himself in God, doing all that the Father asked of Him, reflecting the invisible image of God. Obviously Jesus loves His Father.

For Him and through Him all things were created: What an awesome gift. What an awesome unselfish expression of love the Father bestows upon His Son.

He is before all things and has preeminence: Jesus is the king of the kingdom, the head of us that are the church and has power over all things.

10) We can see that The Father, and this could be any good father, will give to an obedient son everything in His power. God bestowed upon Jesus all that is righteous; a priesthood that lasts forever, power over the kingdoms of earth and the angels in heaven. Jesus is the good Son that did as His good father willed so His Father gave to Him everything. Here we have examined a father son relationship in the extreme of love. God the Father is righteousness; all that is good and without evil. Jesus the Son submitted himself to His Fathers will, even unto death, so that the will of the father would be fulfilled. Without this love for us from Jesus we would still be lost in our sins.

11) I’m going to read Romans 5:7-8 7)“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a god man someone would even dare to die. 8)But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

12) At our best we cannot achieve this level of obedience. Sooner or later we will resist or fail at our responsibility to our relationships with each other, but as good fathers we can continually strive to follow the example set before us in love and patience.

We can reach out to the other in the father child relationship and show that we care and can be considerate to each other.

13) The Bible gives us all kinds of examples of fathers.

A good but neglectful father like Eli (1Sam. 2).

Eli’s neglect to correct and council his children was so grievous that they sinned agents their own people, made a sham of the priesthood, ignored what their father told them about their shamefulness, and greatly dishonored the heavenly Father. The Lord was so distressed at the lack of will Eli displayed to correct his children that he rebuked and chastened him, then cursed his household.

A bad and rotten father like Ahab (1Kings 16-22).

King Ahab followed his father King Omri’s example by being a worse sinner than King Omri himself was. A fathers example can lead to the destruction of not only himself but also the entire family; in this case Israel. A little bit of love and respect for the Lord could have gone a long way here.

Good men who from time to time left bad examples like David (1&2 Samuel).

We all know the troubles King David had controlling his desires.

And good fathers like Abraham.

Abraham loved and respected the lord very much. He did as the lord asked, without question, even to the point of sacrificing his own son Isaac, and Abraham would have if the lord didn‘t stop him. That is trust, faith, obedience and love.

14) Of course we want to follow the best example possible, God, so we can have a lineage of love and respect. Proverbs 17:6 reads, “Children’s children are the crown of old men, And the glory of children is their father.” This is a good verse for a father to put to memory so his responsibility will always be before him, and for children to memorize so they can appreciate their father more for being the good father he is or was.

2. Perspectives and responsibilities.

A. 1) As you have noticed a father is looked upon through several perspectives. Your own, your Child’s, your wife’s, the people that are around you and God’s. With each of these we have responsibilities. Paul says that our responsibility is to train our children in the Lord. The Greek word used here means to educate or instruct them about the Lord and his way. Wouldn’t our world today be a better place if all fathers did God’s will and took the lead in educating their children in the Lord? In order to do that they themselves would have to know the word of God, and they would be better off for it. The fact is, most fathers do not do this. Instead they have either not done it at all or they have delegated it to the mother.

2) I asked a co-worker the question, “What are you going to do for father’s day?” A simple unassuming question you would ask almost anyone. He replied, “I’m having the toughest time understanding my son. I invited him to a game of golf on father’s day, my treat including lunch, he doesn’t have to spend a dime and he doesn’t want anything to do with it.” Things don’t seem to be well with him and his son. I don’t know why either, and it’s not my business to intrude. I can only guess that they haven’t followed Ephesians 6:1-4.

3) Turn your Bibles to Ephesians 6:1-4 1) Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2) “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: 3) “That it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” 4) And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

4) This is a command from God that we as children count our parents as valuable. In today’s society this virtue is lacking in so many homes. Even in some homes in the church, and this ought not be. Granted, there are some parents, some fathers who do not deserve such an honor as being valued, but children really ought to sit back and take a good look at all a good father does for his children. Sure he may have made mistakes from time to time and you may not have appreciate his discipline when it came your way--feeling that you received unfair treatment at times, and sometimes you may be right, but it does not negate the fact that our fathers are there hopefully trying to do their very best with the responsibility God has given them to raise us up the way He wants them to. Listen to what God’s word says about children who do not respect, or honor their fathers.

a) Proverbs 15:5 “A fool despises his father’s instruction, But he who receives correction is prudent.

b) Proverbs 20:20 “Whoever curses his father or mother, His lamp will be put out in deep darkness.”

5) There are many children today who have turned a deaf ear to the instructions of their fathers. We see so much of this all around us today, but those children who listen to their fathers instruction in the Lord, hopefully will be spared so much anguish in their lives.

A wise person learns from the mistakes as well as the successes of others.

A foolish person repeats the mistakes of others.

6) On the opposite side of those last two verses, look at how children benefit from their fathers instructions.

c) Proverbs 23:24 “The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who begets a wise child will delight in him.”

d) Proverbs 10:1 “A wise son makes a glad father, But a foolish son is the grief of his mother.”

How happy and glad in the heart we are when our children follow instructions. There isn’t anything we as fathers wouldn’t do for such a child,

but, those children that won’t listen or do as they are asked, bring us only sorrow.

7) Children, and I’m speaking to all of us, have we honored our fathers, counting them valuable to us for how they contributed to our upbringing? Have we honored our heavenly Father by listening to and following his instructions?

3. Correction and respect.

A. 1) It has been said that “Fathers don’t have second chances.” We have one time around with our children and we had better do it right. As we know from what the Bible teaches, a good father, such as our Father, God, also gives discipline to His children.

2) Lets read from Hebrews 12:6-11 6) For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives. 7) If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8) But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9) Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10) For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11) Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

3) Fathers who love their children will discipline them. Where there is no discipline, teaching and admonishing, there is no love. I count myself as one of the blessed ones. My father made sure that his four sons followed instructions. We were disciplined very well, just as if he wasn’t going to be around to complete the job of raising his sons. He was right. My father separated from my mother when I was thirteen, and he died when I was nineteen.

4) I count myself blessed because he disciplined for the right reasons, and he loved us very much, and we loved and respected him in return, unfortunately, without being raised in the church. I count myself blessed because I eventually found the way and know from my own hardships that the Holy Bible is Truth.

5) When I remember my father I remember him when I was ten years old, sitting next to him in the truck. His arm around me with that loving smile on his face. I never felt safer or more loved. Thanks to God I found the right woman to be the mother of my children.

I pray that they feel in their hearts the love I felt for my father. Yes, I count myself very blessed because I‘ve found that love again in them.

Conclusion: Good fathers are those who give to their children the best things in life,--the things that I have mentioned in this lesson. You don’t have to be a man with a lot of money, just rich in heart and in the Lord. After all “Children’s children are the crown of old men, And the glory of children is their father.” Again I would like to say to all of you Happy father’s day, and to my heavenly Father-I pray-we make You happy every day.

Invitation: Now that the lesson is over, I would like to take this time to extend to everyone the opportunity to make themselves right with the lord. If you are not in God’s family, what hinders you? You can follow Christ today. All you have to do is--

Hear; Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Believe; John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Repent; Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, Repent and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of Sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Confess; Romans 10:10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Be baptized; Mark 16:16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

Continue steadfast; 1Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vane in the Lord.

If you are a child of God and realize you are outside the safety of his loving grace, ask for forgiveness of your spiritual family and your Heavenly Father and return to His safety. Please come forward at this time while we stand and sing.