Anchoring Your Family For Christ

Father’s Day June 18, 2000

Smith’s Grove Baptist Church

Happy Fathers Day!

Bill Cosby wrote a book called Fatherhood and in it he reacalls two humerous

observations.

Father milking cows

5 kids $20 each

Dennis Rodman and Howard Stern have a lot in common.

They are both famous

They are both rich

They are both extremely profane

They are both rebellious and have no respect for authority

They are both rude

Unfortunately they are both national role models

They both appear in public dressed in women’s clothes

So, what is the explanation for these two adolescents trapped in bodies of

men? The explanation for both is their father.

Now before I go any further, let us push the pause button and allow me if you

will to put a disclaimer in here.

“I do not agree with the current waive in society of blaming everything

from our actions, to poor judgment, bad decision making and our

unwillingness to respect and adhere to the authority that God has placed over

us on the way we were raised and/or on our father or mother. To be truthful

with you I am growing increasingly weary of the peoples of our nation and

our inability to accept responsibility for our actions. Parenting does play a

key role in the way we view the world and the happenings around us, as with

Rodman and Stern, however we have a God in heaven who can and does

make a differance.

OK now go ahead and push play and let us continue.

Dennis Rodman has not seen his father for over 30 years. Philander Rodman

moved to the Philippines when Dennis was a young boy and currently has

two wives. By these two wives he has fathered some 15 children, giving him

27 in all, and when asked by a Newsweek reporter was quoted as saying that

he was shooting for thirty. This kind of helps explain Dennis Rodman

doesn’t it?! But what about Howard Stern.

In a recent Rolling Stone magazine article Howard said, “I will never have a

lot of self-esteem. I don’t feel very good about myself. I still have an

inferiority complex. I can only remember my father saying that I was a piece

of XXXXX. Even though my mother said that I was a great little boy and

that she loved me, I can only remember my father tellling me that I was a

piece of XXXX.

Is it any wonder why Stern talks to millions of people every day on the radio

like that. An you know I doubt that the problem started with Howards father.

Howards father probably grew up hearing the same sorts of things. And his

father the same. This problem has been growing and going on for generations

in the Stern family, I would be willing to guess.

And what about Philander Rodman? I would guess that his father was

unfaithful and was not around when Philander was young.

Proverbs 20: 7 gets to the heart of the matter here, “The righteous man

walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him”

Fathers with integrity don‘t label their children with profane names. And they

don’t walk out on one wife and family to marry two more.

Rodman and Stern have a lot of money and a lot of fame, but they are not

blessed men. And the reason that they are not blessed according to Proverbs

is that they had very deficient fathers.

Rodman and Stern are to be pitied. And the reason is that they both come

from families that are drifting. What is a drifting family? A drifting family

is a family without an anchor. When the father leaves or when he continually

degrades his children or his wife, the family begins to drift. And when a

family begins to drift, it can quickly begin to produce children who are

insecure, self-conscious, emotionally starved and without a moral compass.

1. ANCHORS keep the family from drifting.

You see anchors are important. Fathers, husbands, men we are to be the

anchor for our family. Here today, you can choose to make a mid-course

change of direction, I can choose to make a mid-course change of direction

and begin maybe for the first time to be that anchor that our wives desire, the

anchor that our children crave and to be the anchor that our Lord, Jesus the

Christ in Heaven expects for us to be..

Anchors are important. They put them on ships for a reason. the USS

Dwight D. Eisenhower is one of the largest ships in the world. This gigantic

aircraft carrier is, from keel to mast the size of a 22 story building. It has a

flight deck encompassing over 4 1/2 acres. It weighs over 95,000 tons and

carries 6000 sailors who are served 18,000 meals per day. This is truly a