A Dad God Would Approve Of... Series

SERMON BRIEF

Date Written: June 14, 2006

Date Preached: June 18, 2006

Where Preached: OZHBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Series Title: Idolatry in the Church

Sermon Title: A Dad God Would Approve of…

Sermon Text: 2 Tim 2:14-19 don’t read until after intro…

Introduction:

Do you remember when you used to look at your dad and think he could do ANYTHING… that he could solve any problem… that he was your hero… so many of us used to see our dad in that light, kind of like a story I heard one time…

A little boy and his dad visited a country store, when they were about to leave the owner of the store offered the little boy some free candy. "get a hand full of candy", the owner said to the little boy.

The little boy just stood there looking up at his dad. The owner repeated himself, "Son get a hand full of candy, it’s free." Again the little boy did not move and continued to look up at his dad.

Finally after a few seconds, the dad reached into the candy jar and got a hand full of candy and gave it to his son. As they were walking back home, the dad asked his son, “Son, why didn’t you grab a hand full of the free candy…?”

The boy grinned and looked at his dad and said "Because DAD, I know that your hand is bigger than mine."

This was a young man who thought his dad could do anything. Dads are great for things like that… but many of us do not realize how wonderful our dads are until it is too late.

Far too often we grow to think that we know so much more than our dad… but as we get older… we begin to realize how smart our parents really were… Dads can be pretty clever just listen to this story of a very clever dad…

There was a young man who had just rec’d his driver’s license and when he got home, he asked his dad, who was a preacher, if they could discuss him borrowing the car.

His dad took him into his study and said to the boy, "I’ll make a deal with you. If you bring up your grades, study your Bible a little, and get a haircut, then we’ll talk about the use of the car."

After about a month, the boy came back and again asked his dad if they could discuss the use of the car. They again went to the dad’s study where his dad said, "Son, I’ve been so very proud of you. You have brought up your grades, you’ve studied your Bible diligently, but you didn’t get your haircut."

The young man waited a moment and replied, "Dad, I’ve been thinking about that. You know, Samson had long hair, Moses had long hair, Noah had long hair, even Jesus had long hair..." His dad interrupted him at that point and said, "You are right son, they did have long hair, but remember that they also walked everywhere they went!"

Dads are smart and they use situations in life to teach object lessons to their children. So many of us who have become dads want to be a better dad…

We think to ourselves, what can I do to make myself a better dad to my children? Which, in turn, will make me a better husband to my wife. As believers, we understand that dads are the ones who are set aside by God to be the leader of the family.

We realize the importance of being a good dad and how important having a good dad in our household is to our family.

Did you know that many studies conducted by Yale, Johns Hopkins and other universities have documented the following information about dads;

The absence of a dad is a stronger factor than poverty in contributing to juvenile delinquency.

In 48 cultures around the world crime rates were highest among adults who as children had been raised without a dad...

A study of 39 teenage girls suffering from anorexia nervosa showed that 36 of them had one common denominator; lack of closeness with their dad

An emotionally or physically absent dad contributes to a child’s

(1) low motivation for achievement;

(2) inability to defer immediate gratification for later rewards;

(3) low self esteem;

(4) susceptibility to group influence and juvenile delinquency.

Erma Bombeck once wrote a column on what it means to be a good dad…she wrote…

“…Now, If you’re like most men - even those who had a poor experience with their own dads - you have a general idea of the kind of dad you want to be. You have a picture in your mind of what a model dad looks like and you want to be the kind of dad!” The dad…