Faithful Fathers
God said: "And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse." (Malachi 4:.6).
God finishes the Old Testament by talking about fathers and their families. Malachi 4:6 is the last verse in the last chapter of the last book in the Old Testament. Now, for 400 years God was absolutely silent. Israel was in the middle of a crisis. It was not a financial crisis, but a fathering crisis. What God said to Israel then, God says to us now. Both your problems and your solutions lay at the feet of faithful fathers.
We are living in a world in which real heroes are scarce. So our young people settle for substitute heroes such as movie stars, athletes, pop singers, and social media influencers. Once, a teacher asked her third graders to write about their personal heroes. One little boy brought his essay home and showed it to his parents. His father looked at the paper and tears formed in his eyes. His son had chosen him. He said, "Son, why did you pick me?" The little boy said, "Because I couldn't spell Arnold Schwarzenegger."
Every dad should try to be the hero to his children. I am talking about all the dads because God makes it clear from the beginning of the Scriptures that He holds the father responsible for decisions in the family, and for the destiny of the family. Remember as we mediated last week. The father is the first born of the family and is responsible for carrying the entire weight of the family.
We have a tremendous problem in homes today, and a great part of that problem must be laid at the feet of fathers who have forgotten their place of responsibility to be the spiritual leader in that home. How many fathers here rely on their wives to lead their family spiritually and in prayer? That is your responsibility. Fathers must lead their family and children in the ways of God.
An old Chinese proverb states: "It is harder to lead a family than to rule a nation." If we do not have godly fathers living godly lives, building godly homes, and raising godly children, the nation will fall apart. And this is what happened to the people of Israel, and this is what is happening now in our modern era. I want to meditate with you on the instructions that God gives to dads to help them to be faithful fathers who will fortify their families from sin.
I. Invite Your Children to Receive the Lord
"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!" (Deuteronomy 6:4) This is the core of what every dad should teach every child. Fathers, our number one responsibility is to see to it that your children establish a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Socrates once said: "Could I climb the highest place in Athens, I would lift my voice and proclaim: ‘Fellow citizens, why do you turn and scrap every stone to gather wealth, and take so little care of your children to whom one day you must relinquish it all?'"
What good does it do to raise your child in the finest home; to give your child the finest education; to make sure they gets the finest job; to help them marry the finest spouse; to help them have the finest career; to help them reach the finest position in life; and then watch them rise in the judgment to meet a God they do not know?
I tell you, if you are a father, your most important reason for living is to teach the gospel and living word to your children.
II. Inspire Your Children to Revere the Lord
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might." (Deuteronomy 6:5) We are to teach our kids to love God. There is a special kind of love that God desires, God deserves, and God demands.
We are to love the Lord "with all of our heart." Nothing breaks the heart of God more than the sin of a half-hearted love. Husbands, a half-hearted love will not make your wife happy. Parents, a half-hearted love will not make your children happy. Christians, a half-hearted love will not make God happy. We are to love the Lord faithfully—"with all of our soul." We are to love the Lord firmly—"with all of our strength."
A preacher once asked a group of kids in a Sunday class: "Why do you love God?" He got a variety of answers, but the one that he liked best came from a little boy who said, "I don't know why I love God, pastor, I guess it just runs in my family."
III. Influence Your Children to Reverence the Lord
Moses tells his people to "fear the Lord." The fear of the Lord is the awareness that I am in the presence of a Holy, Just, and Almighty God, and that every thought, word, action and deed is open before Him, and is being judged by Him. The fear of the Lord is the glue that holds a society together. However, we have lost the fear of the Lord in our modern era, and we see this in the lives of our young people. Fathers, we need to show the fear of God by the way we live, by the language we use, by the places we go, by the television programs we watch, and by the books that we read that we fear the Lord. You cannot teach what you do not live.
A father was scolding his young son for telling lies. He said, "I never told lies when I was your age." His little boy replied, "How old were you when you started?" You see, your kids will follow in your footsteps a lot quicker than you expect. Children are ever observant and keen. Someone once said: "The footsteps a child follows are the ones their father thought he covered up."
You can take your kids to church every Sunday from the time they are born until they leave the house. But if you don't live on Monday by what you preach, teach, and hear on Sunday, your credibility and influence will not be valid.
IV. Instruct Your Children to Reflect the Lord
"And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart; you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." (Deuteronomy 6: 6-7)
God always intended for the home to be the university of life; the father is the professor, the children to be the students, and the curriculum to be the Word of God. Listen closely to this next statement: Home is where the next generation decides how it is going to live. No matter how many church services your children attend or how many Sunday school classes they attend, the heart of the next generation is decided at home. Therefore we are to teach our children diligently and daily in our home life.
We are to teach our children deliberately. "You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." (Deuteronomy 6:8-9) Your home is to be a lighthouse for God. The primary place where your child should learn the word of God and create a personal relationship with Christ and understand the Holy Spirit, should be in your own homes.
V. Invoke Your Children to Remember the Lord
Moses gave a warning to the people of Israel that when they finally arrive and eat the fat and drink the sweetness of the land, they should remember the God who delivers them. The people of Israel are warned of two dangers: The first is the danger of forgetting God.
"And it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten and are full—then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." (Deuteronomy 6:10-12)
But the second danger is forsaking God. "You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you (for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you), lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy6:13-15)
Now when a nation forgets God, it begins to ask the question: "Who is God?" When a nation forsakes God, it begins to ask the question: "Who needs God?"
This is exactly how our modern era has become. We have gone after the gods of materialism, intellectualism, humanism and secularism. Of course science and knowledge is important, but our modern society has placed science above God, trying to prove against God through science. What is the result? The building block of society, the family, is fractured, falling, and failing because the presence of God is missing. The wholeness of God is missing.
Therefore, we must fortify our families. That responsibility does not rest on our president. It does not rest on our governor. It does not rest on our school and Sunday school teachers. This responsibility rests on the shoulders of our faithful fathers and magnificent mothers. They are the only people who can fortify the family and bring the family back to God.
Conclusion:
Dear brother and sisters in Christ, understand how important it is to raise your children with faithful fathers. For the father’s role in a family as the spiritual leader is fundamentally important to the spiritual growth of children. Fathers are to invite your children to receive, to inspire your children to obey God, to influence your children to fear God, to instruct your children to reflect the way of God, and to invoke your children to remember God. Of course, both parents raise their children. But fathers, you are designed by God to be the leader of your house. Your family rests on your shoulders. Have you fortified your family in faith? Amen.
