Terry Dashner Senior Pastor of Faith Fellowship Church www.ffcba.org
One evening a little girl and her parents were sitting around the table eating supper. The little girl said, "Daddy, you’re the boss, aren’t you?" Her Daddy smiled, pleased, and said yes. The little girl continued "That’s because Mummy put you in charge, right?"
Daddys…you’ve got to love them.
Country music star Tim McGraw says he used to be selfish and cared only about his career. Then he met wife Faith Hill, become a dad to three daughters, Gracie, Maggie and Audrey, and gained a whole new perspective on life.
"You go through all those motions of being successful," Tim told Oprah Winfrey. "Then you meet somebody to fall in love [with] and then you have children. The way you relate to everything-the way that your country’s going, the way that your world’s going, how your kids are being educated, what your kids are thinking, what influences they have on them, what you think about your God-all that stuff changes."
Raising well-grounded kids is so important to Tim and Faith that they only tour during the summer: "With three kids, and school, and Girl Scouts, gymnastics and softball and basketball, that’s why we only tour in summer. The rest of the year we’re just taxi drivers with a credit card," Tim quipped to the Charleston Daily Mail.
The country crooner says his career will always come second to his family, a sentiment he echoed during his Oprah appearance: "No matter which direction the world’s going, I know they’re going to get their focus at home. And that’s the best focus they can have."
Tim McGraw’s last nine albums have all debuted at No. 1; twenty-six of his singles have hit No. 1 on the Country charts. To boot, Nashville’s favorite dad has won 3 Grammy’s and 21 Country Music Awards.
Tribute to Dad
"Honor your father and mother.” This is the first of the Ten Commandments that ends with a promise. And this is the promise: If you honor your father and mother, "you will live a long life, full of blessing.” And now a word to you fathers. Don’t make your children angry by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction approved by the Lord. Ephesians Chapter 6 verses 2 – 4
Fathers are the biggest source of strength for a child. The innocent eyes of a child perceive father as the all-powerful, most knowledgeable, truly affectionate and the most important person in the family. For daughters, fathers are the first men they adore and fall in love with. While for sons their fathers are the strongest person they know and someone they aspire to emulate. Even for the grownups fathers are someone whom they look up to for the most experienced and honest advice that is always in the best of our interest. For this great figure in our life that we know as father – it becomes our utmost duty to pay our humblest tribute on the occasion of Father’s Day.
Top Gift for Dad
And what is the top gift given to fathers on Father’s Day? You guessed it—Neckties! It is said that Regis Philbin likes his to match his shirt. The Duke of Windsor had a vast collection of them, but Col. Sanders always wore the same black one. And many men won’t wear them at all.
Like them or not, neckties are the Father’s Day gift. Americans spend more than $1 billion each year to buy a staggering 100 million ties. That’s roughly one tie for every male over the age of 20 in the United States.
The Associated Press
Dads aren’t getting as many collect calls on their special day.
A decade ago, Father’s Day saw the highest volume of collect calls in the U.S., according to AT&T Inc.
But last year, the spike in calls on New Year’s Day and Thanksgiving beat the one on Father’s Day, while more collect calls were made on Mother’s Day than Father’s Day for the third year in a row.
The volume of collect calling has steadily declined, AT&T said, likely due to reliance on wireless phones, texting and e-mail.
About 60 percent of the company’s customers are on a family or group plan that eliminates the need for collect calls to other relatives, AT&T said.
Bill Cosby Wisdom on Fathers…
"Fathers are the geniuses of the house because only a person as intelligent as we could fake such stupidity. Think about your father: He doesn’t know where anything is. You ask him to do something, he messes it up and your mother sends you: "Go down and see what your father’s doing before he blows up the house." He’s a genius at work because he doesn’t want to do it, and he knows someone will be coming soon to stop him." — Bill Cosby
Sermon
I want to speak on the importance of a Father being a Father. There are three things I wish to highlight: (1) A father should speak God’s truth to his family. (2) A father should make time for his family. (3) A father should walk godly before his family.
I.
A father should speak God’s truth to his family.
· Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:
· That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
· Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
· Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
· And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
· And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
· And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
· And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
· And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
· And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
· And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;
· Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Deuteronomy 6: 1-12
Facts About Dads
As supported by data, children from fatherless homes are more likely to be poor become involved in drug and alcohol abuse, drop out of school, and suffer from health and emotional
problems. Boys are more likely to become involved in crime, and girls are more likely to become pregnant as teens.
-Children in father-absent homes are five times more likely to be poor. In
2002, 7.8% of children in married-couple families were living in poverty,
compared to 38.4% of children in female-householder families.
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states, "Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse." Children who live apart from their fathers are 4.3 times more likely to smoke cigarettes as teenagers than children growing up with their fathers in the home.
- A study on nearly 6,000 children found that children from single parent homes had more physical and mental health problems than children who lived with two married parents. Additionally, boys in single parent homes were found to have more illnesses than girls in single parent homes.
- In studies involving over 25,000 children using nationally representative data sets, children who lived with only one parent had lower grade point averages, lower college aspirations, poor attendance records, and higher drop out rates than students who lived with both parents.
- In a study using a national probability sample of 1,636 young men and women, it was found that older boys and girls from female headed households are more likely to commit criminal acts than their peers who lived with two parents.
- A survey of 720 teenage girls found:
- 97% of the girls said that having parents they could talk to could help reduce teen pregnancy.
- 93% said having loving parents reduced the risk.
- 76% said that their fathers were very or somewhat influential on their decision to have sex. http://www.fathers.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=391
All studies show the importance of a father, but the Bible tells us that there is more to being a father than living in a house with a wife and children. The godly father will nurture his family by leading and speaking the Word of God over them. In I Corinthians 16:13 reads, “Watch ye 1127 , stand fast 4739 in 1722 the faith 4102, quit you like men 407 , be strong 2901 .”
The phrase—quit you like men comes from a Greek word that means to show one’s self a man, brave. A father must be a man. He must lead his family by being decisive and brave. The bravest thing a father can do for his family is love his children’s mother, take them to church, pray over them, speak God’s word over them, and stand up to the devil who wants to destroy them. It takes a brave man to be a godly father.
II.
Secondly, a father must spend quality time with his loved ones.
Robert Schuller, pastor of the Crystal Cathedral, once said that he chose to fail so he could succeed. He said, "I chose to fail at golf, because I wanted to succeed as a father." Though he loved golf immensely, he knew that he could never devote adequate time to his job, his hobby, and his family . . . so he gave up his hobby.
How would you like to spend 2 years making phone calls to people who aren’t home? Sound absurd? According to one time management study, that’s how much time the average person spends trying to return calls to people who never seem to be in. Not only that, we spend 6 months waiting for the traffic light to turn green, and another 8 months reading junk mail. These unusual statistics should cause us to do time-use evaluation. Once we recognize that simple "life maintenance" can chip away at our time in such huge blocks, we will see how vital it is that we don’t busy ourselves "in vain" (Ps 39:6).
Psalm 39 gives us some perspective. In David’s complaint to God, he said, "You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You" (V. 5). He meant that to an eternal God our time on earth is brief. And He doesn’t want us to waste it. When we do, we throw away one of the most precious commodities He gives us. Each minute is an irretrievable gift–and unredeemable slice of eternity. Sure, we have to make the phone calls, and we must wait at the light. But what about the rest of our time? Are we using it to advance the cause of Christ and to enhance our relationship with Him? Is our time well spent?
May I ask you a question? How does one accrue a fortune? One has to invest one’s money in an interest bearing account that grows over time. Time is paramount to an investor. Your children are your greatest investment. To enjoy the rewards of this great investment, you must invest the time. Time invested in your family will pay great dividends.
Let me express my point this way: If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,000 that carried over no balance from day to day…Allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and every evening cancelled whatever part of the amount you failed to use during the day, what would you do? Draw out every cent every day, of course, and use it to your advantage! Well, you have such a bank, and its name is TIME! Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules off as lost whatever of this you failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balances, it allows no overdrafts. Each day it opens a new account with you. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against tomorrow.
“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12.
Your family is a precious commodity. Invest your time in this commodity and it will come back to you—good measure pressed down and shaken together.
III.
A father must walk the walk of Christianity before his children.
A little boy was caught swearing like a sailor. "Young man, where did you learn to talk that way?" said the boy’s mother. The boy looked at his father and said, "Well, Dad, should I tell her?"
II Kings 14:3 speaks of a king of Israel named Amaziah. “He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD…. In everything he followed the example of his father Joash.”
There’s an old saying that says, “What you are speaks so loudly that I can’t hear what you are saying.” In other words, don’t just talk a good talk—walk the walk. Merely talking the talk is like living by situational ethics. You are whatever the situation calls for and that’s not always good. Walking the walk is like core values. No matter what the situation, you do what is right. Why is it important for a father to model core values before his children? It is important because your children as well as other people watch you and model their lives after you. You cannot live among people and not influence them in some way—either positively or negatively.
A 1985 study underscored the truth that violence is a learned behavior. Children who see physical violence between their parents are six times more likely to abuse their own spouses after they marry. If those children were also hit by their parents as teenagers, they are 12 times more likely to abuse their spouses.
Fathers—your conduct is affecting lives. Walk the walk.
Conclusion:
A Father who is truly a father is one who speaks the Word of God over his family. He is one who invests time in the lives of his family. And he is one who walks a godly walk for all to see.
In speaking in honor of our fathers, it behooves me to say this: Not everyone within the sound of my voice can relate to a caring father. Not everyone here was raised by a father. I recognize that the stereotypical fatherhood of the 1950s is not today’s reality. Many children today deal with the stressors of life that come from a broken home or dysfunctional family. Not everyone is fortunate to have a godly and caring family where the father loves his wife and provides for his children. And so this being the case you may wonder if there is any hope for those who have no fathers. And I answer with this: As long as God the Father lives, there is hope for everyone.
A positive male role model is not always a godly father. I agree. But any adult male—an uncle, a grandfather, a close relative, a Big Brother—may fill the surrogate role of a dad. God can always do the impossible. God can bring a godly man’s influence to bear on your children in ways far exceeding your imagination. God can be, and will be a loving and gracious Father to all who seek Him. Happy Father’s Day.
