A Father's Prayer
Introduction: Today is Father's Day for all you dad's it is otherwise known as . . . Sunday.
I know I've mentioned this before but its relevant more today, being Fathers Day, some of you men may remember the evangelist (Jarred Murr) pointed out during one of our fellowship breakfasts, that in his youth ministry he could literally take all the good, helpful and attentive youth and take the promiscuous and rebellious youth and note the one thing the rebellious ones had in common was simply they never had a loyal Dad, while the good youth group did. He mentioned that they didn't even have to be a good dad, the dad just had to be around, and it changed their outcome in life significantly. I have a friend who works in the prison system, who has been both a guard, and a case worker and he told me that he sees that truth every single day. An NFL chaplain said the same thing during an interview and added that many of those players who can buy everything their heart desires, who hear thousands of cheering fans on Fall Sundays look up into the stands after making a big play; hoping, wishing, praying to see, just once, their dad cheering for them, from the sidelines. They would give it all up, the fame and the money to spend one day with their dad.
I would like to preach this morning about A Father's Prayer. Not just any Father but a godly Father. If you are not a godly father, its my hope that you would like to be one. If you are one, this message will give you some encouragement and hopefully some direction. It's important to begin with the obvious, that being a father is more than making children. Let's face it, it's hard enough to find a Father who has been with their family from beginning to end, much less to find a godly father who prays regularly for his children. The nature of society and the culture begins in the home. Families make societies. When we see a society - we are seeing a collective reflection of the family.
God doesn't call us to be perfect fathers, but he does want us to be praying fathers. E.M. Bounds said “what the church needs is men of prayer.” But what the family needs is a praying father! The need for prayer today, is seen every time you open the paper, flip through a magazine, turn on the news, and you see the poor condition of morality all around us. Society is turning sin into virtue, and virtue into sin. But society begins with the family! To heal the nation we are given the prescription in 2 Chronicles 7:14
“If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land.” -2 Chronicles 7:14
Notice it says "my people" yes, Israel but aplies to us as well. "my people who are called by MY name" not the atheist, secularist, agnostic, buddhist, muslim or hindu, but "MY people." will humble themselves. . . And pray. We can't seem to make it to the second step. In an old country church a pastor had 60 people coming to Wednesday night services and the pastor moved by the Holy Spirit decided to preach Sunday morning and Sunday evening, but instead of preaching he called for prayer service on Wednesday night. You want to know what happened? His congregation went from 60 to 6! He lost 90% of his Wednesday service in one week! This was decades ago! People just don't want to pray anymore!
In stead of revivalism, moral relativism is sweeping the Land! Right and wrong are determined based on our feelings, instead of the Bible. Has the Spirit of the Lord left America, like He left Samson? I hope not. But if we wake up from our slumber and realize that our strength is gone, we are in Big Trouble! Not because our enemies can overpower us, but because the Spirit has left us!
We are not a great country - We just serve a great God! The sooner we realize this the greater our country will be! Our problems can't be solved in the white house but in God's house! In Your house! In My house! By praying, seeking, turning back to God! We must stop looking to politicians (from either party) and start looking to Jesus Christ! We are always demanding prayer in schools, first we need it in our homes before we demand it in schools. We are angered about separation of church and state, what are you angry for. Your lifestyle agrees with it! who is coming to church anymore?
We are so reluctant to pray and we wonder why our church, country, family, state is the way it is. I am telling you, we would see those lost children saved! We would see those hurting children healed! We would see those blessing come flowing down from heaven directly to our coutry, our community and our families! If only we would pray! And pray! And pray! And pray! Make it a lifestyle. If we would start praying instead of playing we would see true revival sweep across the land. Leornard Ravenhill said that “revival” is the most prostituted word in the church today. It is not a four day service with an evangelist preaching every night. It begins with prayer! He said he had men travel 300 miles round trip to attend prayer service and he would look around and see men laying down sobbing on their face broken before God, well into the 3 o'clock hour of the morning. That's how revival begins. Who is willing to put in that much prayer work for it? Where are the prayer warriors today? I believe that part of the moral rot that is in America today can be directly traced back to the dying off of the generation of those old faithful, tenacious, broken down, prayer warriors.
Ravenhill sharesa story of A woman who once told a well known evangelist that “daddy (her husband) goes through that door at 6:00 in the morning and he doesn't come out until 6:00 in the evening.” He asked “why?” She said “He prays”. The evidence of his prayer life was found after he died, when a loved one went into his room and there were two dibbits in the old wood floor by the bed, where his knees had landed day after day rocking back and forth pleading to God on behalf of his wife and children. The funeral director noted that the old man had camel's knees from being on them all the time. He lived more of his life on his knees than he did on his feet. We have carpet and padded kneeling benches and who uses them? The measure of a godly father is found in his prayer life.
Transition: We see a godly father in king David, and some scholars say that Solomon was a teenager when David prayed this prayer over his son. let's look at what a godly father prays for:
A Godly Father Prays for The Blessing
“Now, my son, the LORD be with you, and may you have success and build the house of the LORD your God, as he said you would.” I Chronicles 22:11
David first prays “ . . the Lord be with you, . .” The greatest blessing to have is the author of all blessing: the LORD. Usually the most important thing to us comes to our mind first when we pray. It's a father's prayer for his children to be with the Lord and that the Lord would be with his children. How much do godly men and women owe to their praying parents? There is an absence of God in the youth of America today, partly because there is an absence of prayer on their behalf! Rarely do you find a godly young man, who hasn't been corrupted by the filth of this world, who hasn't been perverted by a sex obsessed culture, or debased by the entertainment industry. An evangelist once cleverly and truthfully said “entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy.” I believe it! We see depressed and suicidal teens running to entertainment to find what they can only find in Jesus! JOY! A great apostasy is spurred when confessing Christians look to entertainment to fill their spiritual void instead of Christ.
If you would stop running to the world and start running to Christ, you would find what you seek. But many of the youth are looking to their dad to show them the way! And where are they? Many (especially in black communities) walk away from their pregnant wives! They run around instead of hanging around! Many don't know and others dont care about the joy in Christ enough to share it with their own children!
Jesus said “If you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
We can cause our children to sin by giving them an evil example to live by. We can lead them into atheism when we mock piety, we can lead them into Laodicean, lukewarm, false assurance when we give soft names to gross sins. We have Father's that are becoming a hindrance to their own children's spiritual lives because they refuse to pray for them. I've heard it said, "You can not live wrong and pray right.”
David then prays “may you have success and build the house of the Lord your God, as he said you would.”
It's the desire of a father to see his son not only take his place and his work, but that he would be greatly successful and prosperous in it. Father's want the best for their children, but I pray that God blesses the fathers who want the best for their children's souls!!
David reminds Solomon that this it is God's will for him to finish what his father started.
“ . . as he (the LORD) said you would.”
Transition: In order to take up the task of building this temple – He would need wisdom that is why . . .
A Godly Father Prays for Understanding
“may the LORD give you discretion and understanding, when He puts you in command over Israel, so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God.” - I Chronicles 22:12
The king had done his part and his time had passed and God was pleased with what he had done. But now it was time for Solomon to do his part. Fathers should teach their children that success in the Lord is the greatest success there is!
Solomon was the wisest man there was but He did not plan the temple. He had to borrow the plans from his father David who got them directly from God. Just like Joshua from Moses, and Elisha from Elijah, and Timothy from Paul, everything Solomon had, he owed it to his predecessor. There are many that work the fields and plow the ground and sow the seeds and they bleed and cry and they sweat laboring and suffering the pain of their toil only to have someone to take over their labor, and perhaps steal away some of their glory. David didn't care for glory, Because it wasn't a house for David nor a house for Solomon, it was a house for God and For His Glory!
Solomon was going to need wisdom and understanding, now more than ever before because David was moving on. If our children won't pray for wisdom themselves, then we fathers must pray for it for them.
Where does wisdom begin? Solomon's Proverbs and Davids Psalms say that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” We don't hear those two words much anymore “God-fearing” we hear God- loving and God-praising, but not God-fearing. Does the youth of America fear the Lord? I know the Christian youth of today, they love the Lord and I know they praise the Lord! But If they feared the Lord they wouldn't be doing half the things they are doing today? When a person both Loves the Lord and Fears the Lord, they want to Obey the Lord. David says “that you may keep the law of the Lord your God.” It is a godly fathers desire to see his son love the lord and praise the Lord but also always fear the Lord!
I don't know of a better position a young man can be in his early life than when he fears the LORD! He is begging for wisdom and doesn't realize it! And the Lord will not disappoint him.
Its a good thing too, because, like Solomon, the positions we are called to in this new era need wisdom to work with people and we need fear of God to know that there is a greater king than ourselves, that we must answer to someday.
Transition: A Godly father prays for the blessing, he prays for understanding, and he also prays for strengthening.
A Godly Father Prays for Strengthening
“Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and laws that the LORD gave Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged.” - I Chronicles 22:13
A Father prays for his child's strength and for them to have courage. David, being king himself knew the dangers that awaited Solomon, and commands him to be careful to follow God and his laws. David suffered greatly after the sin of killing Uriah to sleep with his wife. A Father's desire is that his son doesn't make the same mistakes he did in his youth.
David understood the temptations of the world and prayed that Solomon would have the moral courage to stand against it. Each generation of Christians must face their own set of trials, and they will be defined by what they do with them. Some generations repent. Others rebel.. Some are judged. Some are blessed. We can be known as the great generation that prayed for the generation coming behind us, the way the old-timers prayed for us or we can be known as the generation who did nothing, and let the world go to hell.
Today we have a spirit of relativism, that sees and judges everything by feelings. “that may be your reality but this is mine” “that may be your truth, but this is mine” “abortion may be wrong for you but not for me” “living together out of wedlock may be wrong for you but not for me” "my God wouldn't judge me!" let me say lovingly as I can: you don't know God, my friend. He will judge us all. The word says so. But the word of God means nothing to the relativist of today!
Why do our children need strength today? Because they are surrounded by rebels, atheists, god-haters, false Christians, and a growing group of people that continuously make Jesus an idol instead of making him Lord, by conforming an idea of Jesus to their preference, instead of conforming themselves to his reality. And if we follow Davids prayer for Solomon, and are careful to observe the laws of the Lord we will not lose our bearing!
If we don't teach our children right from wrong you better believe that Society will teach our children that “as long as what you do doesn't hurt anybody then it's okay to do whatever you want;” from porn to drugs, from adultery to stealing, from homosexuality to lying. Ravi Zacharias said “with no fact as a reference, what is normal is purely a matter of preference.” That is why we need Godly Fathers praying for their children!
Conclusion: Ill. A minister concluded his sermon one Sunday by saying, “If there's someone here who wants help in getting to know God, and you would like me to pray for you, please raise your hand.” A young man stood up and said, “Please pray for me sir. The burden of my sin is too heavy to bear.”
After the service, the minister talked with the man and led him to Jesus. The young man had been wandering around the country for 8 years without contacting his parents, so he decided to write to them and tell them about the change in his life.
Several days later, a reply came from his mother: “My dear son, you must have accepted Jesus Christ at the same hour your father went home to heaven. He had been sick for a long time, and that day he was very restless. He tossed from side to side on his bed, crying out, 'Lord, please save my poor, wandering boy.' I'm sure that one of the reasons you became a Christian was Dad's unceasing intercession.”
It could just be that all of Solomon's success was solely based upon a Father's Prayer.
