Father's Day 2023

FATHER’S DAY 2023

BETHANY BAPTIST CHURCH

JOHN 8:32 THEN YOU WILL KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE.”

INTRODUCTION: WELL, AS I DID A WEB SEARCH FOR “GREAT MEN” QUOTES, I FOUND MANY THAT EXPRESSED A RATHER PRAGMATIC AND, IN MY OPINION, UNBIBLICAL VIEW OF MANHOOD. HERE ARE A FEW:

AND THEN THERE WERE A FEW I COULD EMBRACE:

AND THEN I WOULD LIKE TO REMIND YOU OF THIS:

THE WOMEN BEHIND FATHER’S DAY

GRACE GOLDEN CLAYTON

THE FIRST KNOWN FATHER’S DAY SERVICE OCCURRED IN FAIRMONT, WEST VIRGINIA, ON JULY 5, 1908, AFTER HUNDREDS OF MEN DIED IN THE WORST MINING ACCIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY.

GRACE GOLDEN CLAYTON, THE DAUGHTER OF A DEDICATED MINISTER, PROPOSED A SERVICE TO HONOR ALL FATHERS, ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO HAD DIED. HOWEVER, THE OBSERVANCE DID NOT BECOME AN ANNUAL EVENT, AND IT WAS NOT PROMOTED; VERY FEW PEOPLE OUTSIDE OF THE LOCAL AREA KNEW ABOUT IT. MEANWHILE, ACROSS THE ENTIRE COUNTRY, ANOTHER WOMAN WAS INSPIRED TO HONOR FATHERS …

SONORA SMART DODD

IN 1909, SONORA SMART DODD OF SPOKANE, WASHINGTON, WAS INSPIRED BY ANNA JARVIS AND THE IDEA OF MOTHER’S DAY. HER FATHER, WILLIAM JACKSON SMART, A FARMER AND CIVIL WAR VETERAN, WAS ALSO A SINGLE PARENT WHO RAISED SONORA AND HER FIVE BROTHERS BY HIMSELF, AFTER HIS WIFE ELLEN DIED GIVING BIRTH TO THEIR YOUNGEST CHILD IN 1898. WHILE ATTENDING A MOTHER’S DAY CHURCH SERVICE IN 1909, SONORA, THEN 27 YEARS OLD, CAME UP WITH THE IDEA.

WITHIN A FEW MONTHS, SONORA HAD CONVINCED THE SPOKANE MINISTERIAL ASSOCIATION AND THE YMCA TO SET ASIDE A SUNDAY IN JUNE TO CELEBRATE FATHERS. SHE PROPOSED JUNE 5, HER FATHER’S BIRTHDAY, BUT THE MINISTERS CHOSE THE THIRD SUNDAY IN JUNE SO THAT THEY WOULD HAVE MORE TIME AFTER MOTHER’S DAY (THE SECOND SUNDAY IN MAY) TO PREPARE THEIR SERMONS. THUS, ON JUNE 19, 1910, THE FIRST FATHER’S DAY EVENTS COMMENCED: SONORA DELIVERED PRESENTS TO HANDICAPPED FATHERS, BOYS FROM THE YMCA DECORATED THEIR LAPELS WITH FRESH-CUT ROSES (RED FOR LIVING FATHERS, WHITE FOR THE DECEASED), AND THE CITY’S MINISTERS DEVOTED THEIR HOMILIES TO FATHERHOOD.

BECOMING A NATIONAL HOLIDAY

THE WIDELY PUBLICIZED EVENTS IN SPOKANE STRUCK A CHORD THAT REACHED ALL THE WAY TO WASHINGTON, D.C., AND SONORA’S CELEBRATION PUT THE IDEA ON THE PATH TO BECOMING A NATIONAL HOLIDAY. HOWEVER, THE HOLIDAY DID NOT CATCH ON RIGHT AWAY, PERHAPS DUE TO THE PERCEIVED PARALLELS WITH MOTHER’S DAY.

THE FIRST BILL WAS INTRODUCED IN CONGRESS IN 1913, BUT IN SPITE OF ENCOURAGEMENT FROM PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON, IT DID NOT PASS.

EIGHT YEARS LATER, PRESIDENT CALVIN COOLIDGE SIGNED A RESOLUTION IN FAVOR OF FATHER’S DAY “TO ESTABLISH MORE INTIMATE RELATIONS BETWEEN FATHERS AND THEIR CHILDREN AND TO IMPRESS UPON FATHERS THE FULL MEASURE OF THEIR OBLIGATIONS.”

IN 1966, PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON SIGNED AN EXECUTIVE ORDER THAT THE HOLIDAY BE CELEBRATED ON THE THIRD SUNDAY IN JUNE.

UNDER PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON, IN 1972, CONGRESS PASSED AN ACT OFFICIALLY MAKING FATHER’S DAY A NATIONAL HOLIDAY. (SIX YEARS LATER, SONORA DIED AT AGE 96.)

FATHER’S DAY TRIBUTE VIDEO

THIS MORNING, I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE A FEW MOMENTS AND FILL YOUR “FATHER’S TOOLBOX”. NOW TO BE CLEAR, I AM NOT GIVING YOU A FATHER’S TOOLBOX, BUT I CAN GIVE YOU A FEW THINGS TO FILL IT WHEN YOU GET IT. AND OF COURSE, THEY CENTER AROUND THE WORD “FATHER”

WHY? FOR THE SIMPLE REASON THAT WE NOW CURRENTLY LIVE IN A WORLD, AND ENVIRONMENT THAT IS NUTS!

THE CULTURE OF TODAY IS TRYING TO INFLUENCE OUR CHILDREN TO REJECT GOD

THE CULTURE TODAY IS TRYING TO CONVINCE US THAT WE CAN LIVE HOWEVER WE PLEASE

WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO DISCERN THIS AND COMBAT IT

IT WAS THIS WAY IN THE BEGINNING OF TIME AND IT WILL AND IS RETURNING AS THE IMMINENCE OF THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH:

EVER SINCE OUR FIRST PARENTS DISOBEYED GOD, HUMAN SOCIETIES HAVE BEEN CORRUPTED WITH ALL KINDS OF SIN IN THOUGHT, WORD, DEED, ATTITUDE, AND AFFECTION. THE GENERATIONS LEADING UP TO GOD’S JUDGMENT IN THE FLOOD EXHIBITED SUCH GROSS DEFILEMENT THAT GOD CHOSE TO JUDGE THE WHOLE EARTH, SPARING ONLY RIGHTEOUS NOAH AND HIS HOUSEHOLD:

THE LORD SAW THAT THE WICKEDNESS OF MAN WAS GREAT IN THE EARTH, AND THAT EVERY INTENTION OF THE THOUGHTS OF HIS HEART WAS ONLY EVIL CONTINUALLY. . . .

NOW THE EARTH WAS CORRUPT IN GOD’S SIGHT, AND THE EARTH WAS FILLED WITH VIOLENCE. AND GOD SAW THE EARTH, AND BEHOLD, IT WAS CORRUPT, FOR ALL FLESH HAD CORRUPTED THEIR WAY ON THE EARTH (GENESIS 6:5, 11–12)

EVEN AFTER THE FLOOD, GOD KNEW THAT “THE INTENTION OF MAN’S HEART IS EVIL FROM HIS YOUTH” (GENESIS 8:21), AND THIS TRUTH HASN’T CHANGED THROUGHOUT HUMAN HISTORY. IN FACT, THE APOSTLE PAUL WARNS US THAT WICKED HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND GODLESS MORALITY WILL BECOME MORE PREVALENT AS WE PROCEED “IN THE LAST DAYS”: