Sermon Tone Analysis

The Good News Of A Godly Father

Happy Father’s Day

Dad’s enjoy your day.

Enjoy your fatherhood.

I remember the first time hold me children.

It changes you.

You realize that life is about more than you.

You realize that life require giving of yourself.

You realize in greater measure what manhood means - words like responsibility, strength, sacrifice, encouragement, support, character, integrity, wisdom, faith, love, they take on new and deeper meaning.

Life is precious.

Fatherhood is a gift.

Peotic language of blessing and faithfulness and provision and future.

Fatherhood is a blessing.

And blessings often require something of us.

We are to steward well the blessings of God.

And as father’s we are to steward well fatherhood.

And as Father’s we are to rejoice in the blessing of fatherhood.

Every stage of fatherhood has it’s blessings and its challenges.

But every stage of fatherhood has its rewards.

And the older I get, the older my children get the greater my awareness of the temporal nature of each stage of life.

The worst part of getting older is that everyone else gets older too.

Its the nature of life until to New Creation arrives in fullness.

We are to steward the gift of fatherhood well in this life because this life isn’t the whole story.

To quote Theolgian N.T. Wright, “Theres life after life after death.”

This morning I want to take a few moments to look at some fathers in Lukes Gospel, and see what lessons we can learn from them as we strive to steward well the gift of fatherhood, not just for this life, but for the next.

Godly Father One: Jairus

A Godly Father Recongnizes His Need

There comes I time in the life of every father when we experience something that we can’t fix.

Carter at 1 month old.

Elleson having seizures.

But beyond physical health, as they grow older you realize you can’t make every decision for them.

They make bad choices.

You can’t fix everything.

Dads, we need help.

Jairus needed help.

He was desperate.

He was scarred.

He was powerless.

Jairus needed help.

Jairus needed Jesus.

A Godly Father Recieves Help

It would have done nothing if Jairus, after recognizing his need, didn’t recieve the help available.

Dads, we do not know it all.

We are learning as we go.

But as we go, it matters where we go.

Go to Jesus.

Go to godly people.

I know, it's important at to feel like you have all the answers, but you don’t.

Dads, we need help.

We need Jesus.

We need Christian mentors and friends.

We need to listen to godly counsel and advice.

Dads, let me give you a resource - AllPRODAD.COM

Practical, helpful, godly help.

We have a fatherlessness epidemic.

Children need fathers.

Children need engaged fathers.

Children need their dads.

They need their dad’s at their soccer matches and at their game consoles.

(I’m still learning the game console part)

They need their dad’s prayers and their dad’s godliness example.

A Godly Father Sets A Godly Example

Jairus set a godly example.

Jairus was a leader in the synagogue.

Jairus was deeply religious.

Jairus modeled faith.

Jairus went to to church.

Jairus took his family with him.

Jairus served in church.

Jairus read scripture.

Jairus passed down his faith to his children.

Dads, the greatest inheritance you can leave for you children is an inheritance of faith.

You can teach them how to hit a baseball, how to catch a Pokemon, how to dribble a soccer ball, how to study, how to read, how to dance, how to drive, how to balance a checkbook, but if you don’t teach them how the to know God and make God known and to Fear God and Keep His Commandments, the whole duty of man, you have not eternally invested in them.

You have not invested life in them.

Set a godly example.

Make spiritual deposits into their life.

Let your love be genuine.

Let them see a godly man at church and a godly man at home.

A godly mans give his children something to eat, something that satisfies the spiritual hunger.

Godly Father Two: A Man From The Crowd

A Godly Father Recongnizes The Spiritual Fight Against Our Children

The father says “a spirit seaizes him”

Listen dads, you are in a spiritual battle for the souls of your child.

The enemy is cunning.

The enemy is deceitful.

The enemy is a liar.

The enemy is still looking for ways to throw our sons and daughters into the fire.

The enemy is still looking for ways to destroy God’s good plan and purpose for our children.

We live in a time where the enemy is attacking the identity of our sons an daughters.

The enemy wants to confuse them because he doesn’t want them to discovery the beauty and purpose of their biological gender identity.

Boys, you were created a boy because boys image God in a unique way.

Girls, you were created a girl because you image God in a unique way.

Both boys and girls are equal in creation, authority, and purpose - but distinct in biology and physiology.

The enemy wants to destroy their hope.

The enemy wants to create self-hatred and self-harm.

The enemy wants them to feel alone and isolated and misunderstood.

Their is a spiritual attack against our children.

Maybe the fight is an directed against your children.

Maybe the attack is directed against you.

Maybe the attack is against directed your wife.