Father's Day - Being Dad

"Father's Day -- Being Dad"

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

INTRODUCTION: When my daughter Christi was getting married, being a preacher I did what every preacher would do in those circumstances, I offered to perform the ceremony. Now I'm never considered myself to be the brightest bulb on the tree and it never occurred to me that if I performed the ceremony that it would make it difficult for me to "give the bride away." Fortunately for me Christi had everything planned and she said, "I want Bro. Terry (Forrest) to perform the ceremony; I want you just this once, to be dad!" That phrase, "...to be dad..." blew me away and being the spiritual guy that I am I started thinking about what kind of a dad I had been for her and her brother Mike and folks it was difficult. I thought of all the times I had been gone and the things that I had missed and, well you know I cried like a baby. I learned a very powerful lesson from my little girl that day that I haven't forgotten. I am still striving to "be dad", the right kind of dad!

I. We Ought to Be Men of Grace

a. Saved by grace

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

b. Shaped by grace

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

c. Seasoned by grace

Col 4:6 Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

You can tell a great deal about a man by listening to him talk. If a man professes to be a Christian but doesn't talk like one, something is wrong somewhere. I read an illustration about two fellows name Paul and William.

ILL - This is a true story. Two guys in a church, Paul and William decided that they really wanted to become godly men. So they started meeting with one another to pray and encourage one another; they even set goals for themselves and their behavior, and then were accountable to the other one. Paul decided he wanted to break his habit of using profanity. He decided he was going to put five dollars in the offering for every time he swore during the week. In order to stay accountable, he would tell William how many times he'd failed. The first week cost Paul $100. Now, Paul must've been doing ok financially, because that didn't stop his swearing. In fact, while he improved somewhat over the next couple weeks, he really wasn't having the success he wanted and was losing a lot of hard-earned cash. After the fourth week, William told Paul he had decided that the deal needed to be changed for the coming week, but he wasn't going to tell Paul how it would change. He just said, Trust me. It will cost you both less and more. When they met the following Sunday before worship, Paul admitted he'd failed again. William put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Paul, I told you this was going to cost you both less and more. It's called grace." William took out his checkbook, and made out a check to the church, leaving the amount blank.

He gave the check to Paul and said, "Your sin still costs, but for you it's free. Just fill in the numbers. And next week there will be more grace." William's grace cost him $55 the first week; the second only cost him $20. There was no third week. Paul couldn't bear to see what his sin was costing his friend, so he quit sinning.

II. We Ought to Be Men of Growth

a. Growth in the Spirit

We are to "be filled with the Spirit" in our walk with the Lord! This means that we are to be "under the influence" of the Holy Spirit, under His control and yielded to Him more and more each day. The result of a life in the Spirit is joy unspeakable and full of glory!