Voices In The Distance (Father's Day Message 2021)
Fathers Day Message 2021 • Sermon • Submitted
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· 23 viewsA look at the role of a father to his kids.
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Your family is a reflection of you
Your family is a reflection of you
4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.
Let me start by saying happy father’s day to all the dads. As a father myself I know the importance of investment into your family. Particularly our kids. Society would have us thinking that men are not needed and that we are here for the sole purpose to just provide income to our homes, fix up our homes and take out the trash. Mother’s will do the rest. But today, I want to challenge society with the Word of God and the experiences I have seen and been apart in my life.
some time ago I read an article about a pack of young bull elephants who were in musth (a time in which young male elephants are going through puberty) The young bulls were attacking each other sometimes to the point of death and they also had killed over 50 rhinos! The director of the park Mr. Van Dyk realized that the solution was to introduce larger bulls, older bulls to the herd. Literally within hours the younger bulls got back inline as they knew that couldn’t out match the older bulls. The elephants social structure within days was back in order.
This story is so powerful because it reflects us as humans, when we remove the father head out of the lives of our children we are going to see a decrease in a stable society. This is why it is so important that we fathers remain in the lives of our families and this why we see so much Chaos in our societies now. No proper family structure. No balance.
4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.
Tell the story of you as a child growing up: try to do it in 5 minutes
As a child I was your typical one for most parts, I loved to play out side in the dirt with my toy trucks and army men, playing with my friend Sean and riding my big wheel. But my mother said that I always would run in the house sweaty and dirty telling her that it was time for me to preach. I would grab our Bible and tell her to sit down why I practiced my preaching. I would wipe sweat from my brow and begin to hoop and preach what ever sermon parts I had heard that week as my mother listened to the gospel radio programs that came on that week. So it was a mixture of Reverend Gatalen from Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church which is were we use to attend as I grew up as a child crawling around on the floor to get to the second row of pews were the mothers of the church use to sit so I could get me some of that candy they had in their purses. Or listen to J. Vernon McGee, Thru The Bible Radio Network. (I can still hear that male choral introduction) Or as my mother held me in her arms in her lap watching a Billy Graham Crusade preaching thundering messages about the salvation plan of Christ and seeing thousands come down to accept Jesus into their hearts! Amen! Yes, these were the great men in my life! The men that every single week told me how to get right and that I needed to get right, or else! My respect was automatic. I was a young bull who was headed on a path that was going to take me away from these men. I didn’t want that! They were all I had to look up too! So I followed them closely, every word, every inflection, every breath mattered! Fast forward and now I am a young bull, much like the bull elephants in the article I talked about earlier. I am running wild, getting into trouble and doing things that I know Dr. Mcgee, Graham or Gatalen would never approve of.... But I don’t care, because I stopped listening to them years before I had gotten to this point. After all what could they really tell me when they are not in my face, day after day, night after night, weekend after weekend? Nothing, just a voice in the distance. That’s what they had become. Mean while I am living my life for all the splendor and glory that Satan had to offer. All of it. Oh yeah my mom was in my life doing the best she could do with a teenage man! But at the end of the day, I was well past the stage of needing my moms talk, no I was at the point of needing to get knocked out by my dad. But my dad was nowhere around and hadn’t been for some years. He just made up in his mind that he needed to do him. not us, Him. This of course presented a major dilemma in my life when I needed him most. So eventually I did end up in juvenile detention center (Pontiac, Mi Children’s Village) For a charge I was guilty of by the way, but God in all of his infinite mercy moved on the judges heart and I was released with a warning that if he ever saw me again I would be there a lot longer next time. I wish I could tell you I got on the straight and narrow. I can’t tell you that. I got on the world’s system of straight, but not God’s system. Yeah I still did ministry and all but was out there every weekend trying to sleep with some girl and hanging out at wild parties. All along I could hear the voice of God telling me that I would not find peace in any of those things but only in Him.
But you know scripture says in
6 Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.
Tell the rest of your story about how Pastor came into your life and became that voice in front of you and not just from a distance. Try to do it in 3 minutes.
I became Timothy, Elisha or Joshua. Pastor filled in the gap of the very thing I needed. The discipline to get me from point A to point B.
12 “Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
Listen Dad’s some of you all have an amazing opportunity to change the course of your children’s lives. You travel through life busy doing your day to days to take care of your families and their needs, wants and desires.
but understand this - I promise you, they don’t want more things. They want more of you.
1 Listen, sons, to a father’s discipline, and pay attention so that you may gain understanding,
2 for I am giving you good instruction. Don’t abandon my teaching.
One thing about Dad, he has always given me great instructions. He has always steered me well. I know it hasn’t been easy for him, I’m a piece of work. But the fact of the matter is I’m his piece of work.
Listen the fact of the matter is your kids are your piece of work
Listen Timothy was Pauls piece of work, Timothy was only as good as what Paul invested into him.
20 I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares about your welfare.
22 But you know how Timothy has proved himself. Like a son with his father, he has served with me in preaching the Good News.
6 Memorize his laws
7 and tell them to your children over and over again. Talk about them all the time, whether you’re at home or walking along the road or going to bed at night, or getting up in the morning.
Two families from the state of New York were studied very carefully. One was the Max Jukes family and the other was the Jonathan Edwards family. The thing that they discovered in this study is remarkable: like begets like.
Max Jukes was an unbelieving man and he married a woman of like character who lacked principle. And among the known descendants, over 1,200 were studied. Three hundred and ten became professional vagrants; 440 physically wrecked their lives by a debauched lifestyle; 130 were sent to the pen for an average of thirteen years each, 7 of them for murder. There were over 100 who became alcoholics; 60 became habitual thieves; 190 public prostitutes. Of the 20 who learned a trade, 10 of them learned the trade in a state prison. It cost the state about $1,500,000 and they made no contribution whatever to society.
In about the same era the family of Jonathan Edwards came on the scene. And Jonathan Edwards, a man of God, married a woman of like character. And their family began and they became a part of this study that was made. Three hundred became clergymen, missionaries, and theological professors; over 100 became college profs; over 100 became attorneys, 30 of them judges; 60 of them became physicians; over 60 became authors of good classics, good books; 14 became presidents of universities. There were numerous giants in American industry that emerged from this family. Three became United States congressmen and one became the vice president of the United States.
What you put into you family is what you will get out of your family
One of the things I have always done with my kids is celebrated there successes with dinner and addressed serious issues with dinner. The dinner table is the most sacred place in your hope, this is the place where you will see God show up more then any other place. Why? Because fellowship is important to God and if we look at Christ we see him address so many positions around the dinner table. Including world domination!
Read Matthew 26:17-30 you will see a plan starting to unfold around a dinner table and conversations that will start the process of shaping the outcome of Christendom.
What you allow others to put into your family is what will come out of them
33 Do not be fooled: “Bad friends will ruin good habits.”
Guard your family well, for there will always be an opportunity for Satan to try and dismantle your home, and if you are not watching closely then you are going to miss him when he tries to sneak past the guard house. No! Be alert, be vigilant, Be dug in and prepared for all of his plans.
How do you do it? it’s simple and biblically based.
Lead them in Prayer, Lead them in Bible Studies, and lead them to Christ. It is a known fact that most people who come to Christ are mostly influenced by there family. When a child comes to Christ, it is a 3.5% chance the that the rest of the house will come. When a mother comes to Christ, it is a 17% chance that the rest will come. But when a father comes to Christ it is a 93% chance that the rest will follow! Why because Dads are huge influencers to the whole family.
Last point, many of us have been disciplined wrongly and let me explain what I mean by that, but we carry that same ideology into how we discipline our own children. Now I’m not talking about spare the rod spoil the child. Proverbs 13:24. No I referring to verbal comments. God has called us to build up our families, our children.
21 Fathers, do not nag your children. If you are too hard to please, they may want to stop trying.
Create strategies to steer your family to success
There are little eyes upon you, and
they’re watching night and day,
There are little ears that quickly take in
every word you say;
There are little hands all eager to do
everything you do,
And a little boy who’s dreaming of the
day he’ll be like you.
You’re the little fellow’s idol, you’re the
wisest of the wise;
In his little mind about you no suspicions
ever rise;
He believes in you devoutly, holds that
all you say and do
He will say and do in your way when
he’s grown up like you.
There’s a wide-eyed little fellow who
believes you’re always right,
And his ears are always open and he
watches day and night,
You are setting an example every day in
all you do,
For the little boy who’s waiting to grow
up to be like you.
Listen Stay the course Dads, it can be tough being a father. I know, I am one and I have to constantly realign my values to what is most important, God, Family Then Others you fill in the blank. But in the end. It will all be worth it. I am living proof of this, as most of my children are now grown and Iam now grandpa (Puba for me) But I look at all my children biological and adopted into my family and I see what God can do if we just stay the course and trust his plan and not our own.
Let’s pray.