"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!
b. Growth in the Scriptures
1Co 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
Heb 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
1 Peter 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
c. Growth in service
SOMEONE HAS TO GROW UP
"We're all selfish, selfish to the core. God sometimes chooses to deal with our selfishness by giving us someone to care for who is infinitely more selfish than you. Babies are not only the cutest creatures on the face of the earth, they are by far the most selfish. Farrar goes on to write: "The way God deals with my own selfishness is to give me someone to serve who has zero interest in serving me. You can't tell me that God doesn't have a sense of humor. Not too many people in the world could out-selfish me one-on-one. But every time we've had a baby, I've met my match. Each of my kids resembled me. I don't mean they looked like me, I mean they were as selfish as me. That meant that somebody in the family was going to have to grow up. Guess who was nominated?"
SOURCE: Steve Farrar in Point Man.
THE AMAZING 8-WATTS
In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leon Jaroff in Time, the satellite's primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter's magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target. But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past the giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter's immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun. And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on Earth. "Perhaps most remarkable," writes Jaroff, "those signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light, and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth." The Little Satellite That Could was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going and going. By simple longevity, its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished more than anyone thought possible. So it is when we offer ourselves to serve the Lord. God can work even through someone with 8-watt abilities. God cannot work, however, through someone who quits.
SOURCE: Craig Brian Larson
III. We Ought to Be Men of Grit
I don't know what it is about the word "grit" that I like but I do! Maybe it's because of one of my favorite John Wayne movies is called "True Grit." (The sequel is good but not as good as the original) Or maybe it's just a guy thing because we get gritty and grimy and we like to use 30 or 60 or 100 grit sandpaper (Tim the tool man would be proud) or it could be just the sound of the word but whatever the reason we ought to be men of grit! By definition it means to "a. clench the teeth, especially when under stress, b. determination or strength of character and c. to endure a trying situation and continue without complaint."
a. Men of courage
The Right Stuff is a 1983 American film adapted from Tom Wolfe's 1979 book. The Right Stuff about the test pilots who were involved in high-speed aeronautical research at Edwards Air Force Base as well as those selected to be astronauts for Project Mercury, the United States' first attempt at manned spaceflight. The story contrasts the "Mercury Seven" and their families with pilots like Chuck Yeager. While never selected as an astronaut, Yeager was considered by many test pilots to be the best of them all. The Mercury Seven were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton. To me the most interesting one was Ret. Gen. Chuck Yeager. His biography states: "Aviator and test pilot Chuck Yeager was born on February 13, 1923, in Myra, West Virginia. A fighter pilot ace during World War II, he became the first person to break the sound barrier, when he flew the Bell X-1 rocket 670 mph in level flight in October 1947. Yeager broke the sound barrier for the last time at age 79, when his F-15 Eagle reached a speed of Mach 1.45 (970 mph) in 2002. He held various air-force command assignments from 1954 to 1962."
b. Men of conviction
Is there anything that you believe that you would die for? If there is, it is called a conviction! A preference is different. There are lots of things that we can take or leave but a conviction is a different kind of animal. Convictions are based on principles and in the case of biblical convictions, they are principles that come from a person; God! Let me give you an example: How many of you have the conviction that it is wrong to commit murder? Everyone here, right! For the Christian we believe that it is wrong to commit because God has said in His word, "thou shalt not kill," but it goes even beyond that, because God is the giver of life, He alone has the right to take it or direct the taking of a life in the case of capital punishment.
c. Men of commitment
Ultimately we become what we are committed too. Show me what you are committed to and I'll show you what you value.
The Unbaptized Arm
ILL - Ivan the Great was the tsar of all of Russia during the Fifteenth Century. He brought together the warring tribes into one vast empire--the Soviet Union. As a fighting man he was courageous. As a general he was brilliant. He drove out the Tartars and established peace across the nation.
However, Ivan was so busy waging his campaigns that he did not have a family. His friends and advisers were quite concerned. They reminded him that there was no heir to the throne, and should anything happen to him the union would shatter into chaos. "You must take a wife who can bear you a son." The busy soldier statesman said to them that he did not have the time to search for a bride, but if they would find a suitable one, he would marry her.
The counselors and advisers searched the capitals of Europe to find an appropriate wife for the great tsar. And find her, they did. They reported to Ivan of the beautiful dark eyed daughter of the King of Greece. She was young, brilliant, and charming. He agreed to marry her sight unseen. The King of Greece was delighted. It would align Greece in a favorable way with the emerging giant of the north. But there had to be one condition, "He cannot marry my daughter unless he becomes a member of the Greek Orthodox Church." Ivan's response, "I will do it!" So, a priest was dispatched to Moscow to instruct Ivan in Orthodox doctrine. Ivan was a quick student and learned the catechism in record time. Arrangements were concluded, and the tsar made his way to Athens accompanied by 500 of his crack troops--his personal palace guard. He was to be baptized into the Orthodox church by immersion, as was the custom of the Eastern Church. His soldiers, ever loyal, asked to be baptized also. The Patriarch of the Church assigned 500 priests to give the soldiers a one-on-one catechism crash course. The soldiers, all 500 of them, were to be immersed in one mass baptism. Crowds gathered from all over Greece.
What a sight that must have been, 500 priests and 500 soldiers, a thousand people, walking into the blue Mediterranean. The priests were dressed in black robes and tall black hats, the official dress of the Orthodox Church. The soldiers wore their battle uniforms with of all their regalia--ribbons of valor, medals of courage. and their weapons of battle. Suddenly, there was a problem. The Church prohibited professional soldiers from being members; they would have to give up their commitment to bloodshed. They could not be killers and church members too. After a hasty round of diplomacy, the problem was solved quite simply. As the words were spoken and the priests began to baptize them, each soldier reached to his side and withdrew his sword. Lifting it high overhead, every soldier was totally immersed-everything baptized except his fighting arm and sword. That is a true historical fact, the unbaptized arm. What a powerful picture of Christianity today. How many unbaptized arms are here this morning? How many unbaptized wills are here? How many unbaptized talents? Unbaptized check books? Unbaptized social activities? How many are there here this morning?
Dr. Wayne Dehoney, Walnut Street Baptist Church, The Pulpit
Conclusion: A lecturer was giving a talk to students on stress management. He raised a glass of water and asked the audience, "How heavy do you think this glass of water is?" The students' answers ranged from 20 grams to 500 grams. The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. What matters is how long you hold it. If I hold the cup for a minute, I would be Ok. If I hold it for an hour, I will have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for one day, you will have to call an ambulance. The cup of water is the exact same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels and the more damage it can do to me." God never intended mankind to carry alone his or her own life's burdens or to pay his or her sins' penalty. God wants to carry our life's burdens along with us and to pay our sin's penalty for us. To let God do what He alone can do for us is not irresponsible but wise. Only God can forgive and give eternal life. So choose to enter the grace-sustained life by putting your trust in Jesus' death on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins and for a right relationship with God now.
