Duct Tape Lessons For Dads

Duct Tape Lessons for Dads

1 Tim. 3:2-6

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. Dennis the Menace sometimes lived up to his name. One day he was over at the Wilson’s house (neighbors) eating cookies and milk. Mrs. Wilson was in the kitchen washing the dishes.

2. Dennis asked Mr. Wilson why he never went to work and he explained he is retired. Dennis said, “Retired? Is that why you loaf all the time?” Wilson answered, Well I worked so hard for so many years that I earned the right to loaf.”

3. Dennis asked why Mrs. Wilson hasn’t retired. Mr. Wilson responded, “She can’t retire because she never worked.” But Dennis said he’d always seen Mrs. Wilson cooking, washing and cleaning. Didn’t that count?

4. “That’s different,” said Mr. Wilson, “She’s a housewife; if she retired, who’d do the housework?” Dennis said, “Couldn’t YOU help?” “Dennis! Are you trying to cause trouble?!” Mrs. Wilson says, “Stop yelling at Dennis! He’s right and you know it!”

5. In the next frame, Dennis walks up to his mother in the garden. She asks, “What are the Wilson’s arguing about?” Dennis answers, “I don’t know. I came home ‘cause I didn’t want to get involved!”

B. TEXT

2Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. 5(If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?) 6He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.

C. FATHER’S DAY & DUCT TAPE

1. Today is a great day for men - Father’s Day. Jesus would often use objects to get His truth into the hearts and minds of people, so they would remember it easily for long time and get the point. Fish, nets, fishing, bread, water, rivers, trees, fruit, vineyards, wooden board/pole, shepherd/sheep, etc.

2. So today we take an object - duct tape, something we guys use a lot - and see what truths God tells us as dads to live by. You can do almost anything with one of the greatest things in life ever created - besides post-its - is duct tape.

3. 5 DUCT TAPE LESSONS FOR BEING A GREAT DAD:

I. STICK TO THE MAIN THING

A. WHY DUCT TAPE WAS MADE

1. "The original olive-drab version of the tape was developed during World War II for a specific purpose: The military needed a tough, waterproof adhesive tape to seal ammunition cases and other containers.

2. At Johnson & Johnson, a research team came up with a strip of cotton-mesh cloth coated with a polyurethane sealant on one side (making it waterproof and allowing the tape to be peeled off the roll) and a rubber-based adhesive on the other.

3. Military tradition says it was called “duck” tape, either because water rolled off it or because of the layer of cotton “duck” cloth that formed its base. But whatever its name, it did its job: it stuck and held to whatever it was taped to.

B. DAD – STICK TO THE MAIN THING!

1. Dads also have been designed for a purpose: we’re supposed to stick so closely to Jesus that our words, behavior, and lives are conducted after the pattern He set.

2. Paul told Timothy to be an “example,” a visible representation of what Christ is to an unbelieving world. If what we have is real, it ought to show. The world is crying to see reality. You are probably the only Jesus/Bible those around you will ever see! “We are epistles, known and read of all men” 2 Cor. 3:2. We can’t lay it off on someone else to be a Christian; the responsibility falls on us, especially as heads of our families!

3. It’s a terrible thought, but people will judge Christ by us. If we sin, it will demonstrate to those around us that Christ isn’t real or worth serving! The owner of a hotel chain regularly tells her employees, “Remember, my reputation is in your hands!” There are so many hypocrites, people who lead double lives. Let’s not be one of them.

4. LIVING WITH JESUS. A woman was born again and

dramatically changed through Jesus Christ. Her husband was a godless man and she had been just like him until now that she had found Christ.

This husband and wife continued on for several weeks in their regular routine until finally one morning before he went to work, he said, "Do you know, woman, that I have been living and sleeping and eating with Jesus Christ for the last two weeks?"