A Virtuous Man-Father's Day Message

A Virtuous Man-Father's Day

Father’s Day Ruth 2:1-10 1 John 4:19-20

Today we celebrate Father’s day. I got a text from my daughter, Judge Samantha, four days before Father’s Day inquiring about a possible Father’s Day gift for me:

Good morning dad, what size shirt do you wear? Medium. Large, or X Large.

Me: Good morning Extra Large.

What size pants do you wear. Me: 36 by 34.

And what size tennis shoes and dress shoes.

Me: 12 and to keep you from having to ask my wallet holds 50 and 100 bills in stacks of 10.

So you need a smaller wallet. OK

One thing we all have in common here to is that we all had an earthly father who was the instrument God used to bring us into existence. We can say thank you Lord, whether the father was a great one or a poor one, because without that father, we would not be enjoying the blessings of God today nor the gift of life today.

Let me say thank you to every man who brought a child into this world, and was committed to that child for life. You were there for the child with food, shelter, clothing, and love. Thank you to all the men present who took the place of a father in child’s life for whatever reason or circumstance, because you too have made a difference.

Thank you to the men who made some mistakes along the way, but you tried to go back and do what was right for your children. Thank you to boys who are yet becoming men, who have made up your minds, I’m not bringing a child into this world until I’ve gotten a wife that I’m committed too for life, so that I can be the kind of father God wants me to me.

Every male here was created with the possibility for excellence. Now men wouldn’t it be great if after coming into contact with us, others would look at us as we walked away thinking in their hearts, “Wow, what a man.” We may get excited to know that a woman is thinking that about us, but it’s just as important to know that our children, our family, our church, our community and most importantly of all our God are all eager to say the same thing about us. “Wow, what a man.”

Now men somebody lied to us along the way and told us the secret to having people say this about us is to drive the right kind of a car, build a home in the right neighborhood, get a job with some status, dress to kill and have the women chasing after us. There was a father who had all this and then some. He not only lived in the right neighborhood; he built the neighborhood. He was Chief Executive Office of several corporations.

His little black book did not consist of 10 to 20 names. He had an inventory of 1,000 women to choose from on any given night. Now before you say to yourself, “wow what a man” let me tell you, before he died, he said it was all meaningless. He said, “I would have been better off serving God with my life than taking the path I chose. His name was Solomon. Read the book of Ecclesiastes to see the life of a man who had it all as far as money, power, and sex are concerned and where it left him. It’s sad to say that even after God used him to write parts of the bible, to our knowledge at the time of his death, he was worshipping idols instead of God.

I want us to know that some of us as men are far more blessed than we can imagine. It is a blessing to have a wife and children that love us. It’s a blessing when others look at us from a distance and say, “I want to be like him.” It’s a blessing to know the presence of God in our lives. There are so many things that could have us, but don’t because Christ has either taken it away or kept us from going there in the first place.

The good news today is that it’s not too late for us to be changed into men of whom others can say, “wow what a man.” Jesus Christ is still in the business of taking lives that are headed in the wrong direction and turning them around and doing something great in the life of the person by putting them on the right road. To be a man that catches the eye of others, men we need to be virtuous men. The word virtuous is usually applied to women, but men we need to claim it for ourselves as well.