Bringing Home The Bacon Series

INTRO.- ILL.- Anne Carlson wrote: My 16-year-old brother, Ryan, was out late with friends one night. Suddenly he realized it was Father’s Day and he had neglected to buy a card for our dad. After much searching, Ryan located an open store, but was disappointed to find only two cards left on a picked-over rack. Selecting one, he brought it home and, somewhat sheepishly, presented it to our father.

Upon opening it, Dad read this message: “You’ve been like a father to me.” He looked at Ryan, puzzled. “Well, Dad,” Ryan tried to explain, “it was either that or the card that said, ‘Now that I’m a father too!’”

ILL.- Deanna Schneider wrote: Our Gen-X daughter, Cristie, made my husband a Father’s Day card entitled “Things My Dad Would Never Say.” Such as:

- “Can you turn up that music?”

- “Go ahead and take my truck. Here’s 50 bucks for gas.”

- “I LOVE your tattoo. We should both get new ones.”

- “Here, you take the remote.”

ILL.- Terri Cook wrote: Father’s Day was near when I brought my three-year-old son, Tyler, to the card store. Inside, I showed him the cards for dads and told him to pick one.

When I looked back, Tyler was picking up one card after another, opening them up and quickly shoving them back into slots, every which way. “Tyler, what are you doing?” I asked. “Haven’t you found a nice card for Daddy yet?”

“No,” he replied. “I’m looking for one with money in it.”

ILL.- Karla Kasper wrote: While flying from Denver to Kansas City, Kansas, my mother was sitting across the aisle from a woman and her eight-year-old son. Mom couldn’t help laughing as they neared their destination and she heard the mother say to the boy, “Now remember — run to Dad first, then the dog.” What would we do without dads?!

ILL.- On a serious note, Dr. James Dobson said: “The Western world stands at a great crossroads in its history. It is my opinion that our very survival as a people will depend upon the presence or absence of masculine leadership in millions of homes. I believe, with everything within me, that husbands hold the keys to the preservation of the family.”

I agree. Fathers must take their fatherhood seriously if the home is ever to survive and kids are to become decent, hard-working, responsive, and hopefully, Christian citizens!

PROP.- In this sermon, I want to appeal to fathers to please bring home the bacon, but in this sermon, the bacon is more than just bacon.

1- Please bring home the bacon

2- Please don’t beat mama

3- Please do go to church

I. PLEASE BRING HOME THE BACON

ILL.- The origin of the phrase ’bring home the bacon’ is sometimes suggested to be the story of the Dunmow Flitch. This tradition, which still continues every four years in the town of Great Dunmow, district of Essex, (England) is based on the story of a local couple who, in 1104, impressed the Prior (Monk) of Little Dunmow monastery with their marital devotion to the point that he awarded them a flitch [or a side] of bacon.

The bacon was, no doubt, a privileged gift at that time. The meaning, of course, for us today is that we’ve always thought of dad as “bringing home the bacon” or making a living for the family. And that’s what fathers in past ages did! They couldn’t do otherwise and didn’t think of doing otherwise! There were fewer “deadbeat” dads in the old days that wouldn’t work than there are now.

ILL.- Victor Borge (1909 - 2000 age 91), Danish pianist and comedian, announced at the close of a CBS television show: “I wish to thank my mother and father, who made this show possible, and my five children, who made it necessary.”

I Timothy 5:8 “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

What a powerful thought! If a Christian man doesn’t provide for his family then he isn’t living his faith, because even unbelievers provide for their families. In years gone by many fathers would hold down two jobs or more in order to provide for their families.

ILL.- I remember dating a girl when I was just 16 or 17 years old and her father had a factory job, but he also had an ornamental iron work job on the side. Often at night and on weekends he would build/weld and install ornamental work on homes around porches, etc. That was the trend back then.

The Christian father will provide as best he can, but this doesn’t mean he has to give his kids the best of everything or everything they want! Back when I was a kid folks didn’t go in debt for anything except for a house and maybe a car, but that was all! If you had the money you bought something. If not, you did without, but it’s not often that way today. And indebtedness can kill a marriage and a family.