A Message For Father’s Day 2023 Series

(Based on a message preached at First Baptist Church, Chamois, MO on June 18, 2023; but this is not an exact transcription).

Introduction: It’s good to see you this morning, and I hope each one of us remembers our fathers today. My own dad went to Heaven in 2018 but for the last several years of his life, we had a kind of tradition on Father’s Day. Sometimes I’d call him and sometimes he’d call me but it didn’t matter; we always wished each other a “happy pappy day!”

Of course, the Bible doesn’t mention Father’s Day, as a holiday or any other day. Even so, there are a number of things for and about fathers so let’s take a look at some of these. We’ll start with a passage in the Old Testament that gives fathers some basic instructions and go from there.

Text, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, NASV: 4 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! 5 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; 7 and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way and when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 And you shall also bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 9 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

<Opening prayer>

1 Expectations for fathers

Now, when we take another look at this passage, one of the first things I see is the expectation that men, especially fathers, were to train their children in the Word of God. Something we forget is that even though at least some people could write, there didn’t seem to be too much that was written. Sometime after this, Joshua wrote a copy of the Law on stones in Canaan but he had the stones plastered over and then wrote on the new surface, so to speak (compare Deuteronomy 27:1-7 with Joshua 8:30-34). True, the men of Israel were commanded to write portions of the Law, at the very least, on their doorposts and gates. The sad thing is that there is no record anyone of Israel ever did this. Their history might have been a lot different if they had!

That’s just as true for us, too. Of course we don’t need to write portions of Scripture on doorposts or gates—some of us don’t have gates! But we do have the entire Word of God, all 66 Books of God’s Holy Word and, you know, it would do us all a lot of good to READ the thing. I mean, what good is it if we don’t take time and actually READ the Word!

We might be a lot better off is we did! Do you hear the voice of experience here?

By the time of the New Testament, the expectations changed a little—but only a little. Remember that a lot of the New Testament, including Paul’s letters, was written for non-Jewish background (or, pagans) believers. Take a look at some of the literature of Greece and Rome and be glad you didn’t live back then! I’m sure glad I didn’t! One of the greatest commandments for Christian fathers was to not exasperate their children—surely, none of us would do that, now, would we? I mean, getting a child so upset they do something wrong, and then punish them for doing it—when the father got the whole thing started? That’s what Paul was trying to communicate in those passages. There’s more and I encourage all of us to read these letters—and heed those messages, too.

Now of course there are other expectations for fathers, too. Think about it: he’s supposed to work like a dog, and still play like a puppy (Play with me, daddy!); he’s supposed to be devoted to his family and still hang out with his friends (if he has any); and he’s supposed to help around the house whether his wife likes the effort or not.

And on top of that, he’s supposed to be the spiritual leader of the home.

It ain’t easy, guys.

No, some men find it easy to find a willing female to have his child or children. Out of wedlock births are still high even though abortion rates are still high too. But producing a baby does not make a man a real father. He’s got to be committed to the mother—by marriage, ideally—and in for the long haul, to use a figure of speech, to raise those children for God. Praise the Lord for the many fathers who have done this, and I pray others would step up and be Godly fathers too.