1. Father’s Day Funnies:
• A small boy said, "Father’s Day is just like Mother’s Day, only you don’t spend as much on the gift."
Some of you men say, "Gift? What gift?"
• "The World According to Dad." These are words that most dads have said at some time or another to their children.
- This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.
- Quiet. I’m watching the ball game.
- How should I know? Ask your mother.
- I’m not made out of money!
- When I was your age I walked 5 miles to and from school each day and it was uphill both ways.
- You are going and you will have fun!
- If you break your leg don’t come running to me.
- Get down before you hurt yourself. On second thought, go ahead.
- Why? Because I said so!
- If you don’t quit that crying I will give you something to cry about.
- Just wait till you have kids of your own.
- I was not asleep. I was just resting my eyes.
2. We are going to encourage Dads to be courageous in a harsh world
3. Joshua 1.1-9
After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
4. The source for Courageous Dads in our world today is the word of God
Psalm 119.11 I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
119.105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
I. Listen to the Word of God
A. The Internal Aspect – Deuteronomy 6.4-9
4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
B. The Intermittent Aspect – Deuteronomy 31.9-11
9 Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 And Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
1. Once every 7 years?
2. Daily in bite sized amounts – then put it all together, all together
II. Learn the Word of God (1.7)
7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.
A. We Must Hear and We Must Hear – Romans 10.17
B. The Word of God is the “Owner’s Manual” for Our Lives
1. The Source for Success
2. Compare the World’s View of Success with God’s View of Success
• “Sakal – Skill/wisdom/teach and instruct/prosper
• “Prosper” – Happy/to advance
• They were advancing into the land
• GOD’S view of happiness – beatitudes
III. Lean on the Word of God (1.3)
3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses.
A. God Makes Promises – We Need Trust
1. Conquer (1.5)
5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.
2. Presence (1.9)
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
3. Be Strong and DO – (1.6-7)
6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.
4. Remember: 2 Corinthians 1.20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.
• To trust him now is to believe that all of his promises come true.
• Our trust will be in the presence of God.
B. Journey into the Land
1. Only Joshua and Caleb had seen the Land
2. Were the people nervous? Fearful of Giants?
3. Remember your first day of school? First day on a new job?
4. When we become parents it is new territory
a. First child – new territory
b. Subsequent children – new territory – Proverbs 22.6
5. If we listen to, learn and lean on the promises and direction of God we have his success in the new areas of life including one of the most important – parenting
IV. Live Out the Word of God
A. Live It Out in Actions
1. DOING Reinforces Learning – Mark 6.7-13
7 And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. 10 And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
2. DOING Delivers a Message to Others About God – Israel’s strategic location and prosperity
B. Live It Out in Words (1.8)
8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
1. Biblical meditation involves speaking the word of God, not just thinking about it
2. It brings the challenge of teaching children – Deuteronomy 6.4-9 (teach them diligently/repeatedly to your children)
3. We must take care in our words
The profane; gossip; lashon ha ra; etc.
1. Mark Twain said, "When I was a boy of 14 my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man learned in 7 years."
Twain couldn’t appreciate his father’s abilities
Truth – his dad also learned some things during those 7 years
2. Dads and all of us need the courage to live out the words of God in a harsh environment
