Father’s Day June 18, 2000
Smith’s Grove Baptist Church
Happy Fathers Day!
Bill Cosby wrote a book called Fatherhood and in it he reacalls two humerous
observations.
Father milking cows
5 kids $20 each
Dennis Rodman and Howard Stern have a lot in common.
They are both famous
They are both rich
They are both extremely profane
They are both rebellious and have no respect for authority
They are both rude
Unfortunately they are both national role models
They both appear in public dressed in women’s clothes
So, what is the explanation for these two adolescents trapped in bodies of
men? The explanation for both is their father.
Now before I go any further, let us push the pause button and allow me if you
will to put a disclaimer in here.
“I do not agree with the current waive in society of blaming everything
from our actions, to poor judgment, bad decision making and our
unwillingness to respect and adhere to the authority that God has placed over
us on the way we were raised and/or on our father or mother. To be truthful
with you I am growing increasingly weary of the peoples of our nation and
our inability to accept responsibility for our actions. Parenting does play a
key role in the way we view the world and the happenings around us, as with
Rodman and Stern, however we have a God in heaven who can and does
make a differance.
OK now go ahead and push play and let us continue.
Dennis Rodman has not seen his father for over 30 years. Philander Rodman
moved to the Philippines when Dennis was a young boy and currently has
two wives. By these two wives he has fathered some 15 children, giving him
27 in all, and when asked by a Newsweek reporter was quoted as saying that
he was shooting for thirty. This kind of helps explain Dennis Rodman
doesn’t it?! But what about Howard Stern.
In a recent Rolling Stone magazine article Howard said, “I will never have a
lot of self-esteem. I don’t feel very good about myself. I still have an
inferiority complex. I can only remember my father saying that I was a piece
of XXXXX. Even though my mother said that I was a great little boy and
that she loved me, I can only remember my father tellling me that I was a
piece of XXXX.
Is it any wonder why Stern talks to millions of people every day on the radio
like that. An you know I doubt that the problem started with Howards father.
Howards father probably grew up hearing the same sorts of things. And his
father the same. This problem has been growing and going on for generations
in the Stern family, I would be willing to guess.
And what about Philander Rodman? I would guess that his father was
unfaithful and was not around when Philander was young.
Proverbs 20: 7 gets to the heart of the matter here, “The righteous man
walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him”
Fathers with integrity don‘t label their children with profane names. And they
don’t walk out on one wife and family to marry two more.
Rodman and Stern have a lot of money and a lot of fame, but they are not
blessed men. And the reason that they are not blessed according to Proverbs
is that they had very deficient fathers.
Rodman and Stern are to be pitied. And the reason is that they both come
from families that are drifting. What is a drifting family? A drifting family
is a family without an anchor. When the father leaves or when he continually
degrades his children or his wife, the family begins to drift. And when a
family begins to drift, it can quickly begin to produce children who are
insecure, self-conscious, emotionally starved and without a moral compass.
1. ANCHORS keep the family from drifting.
You see anchors are important. Fathers, husbands, men we are to be the
anchor for our family. Here today, you can choose to make a mid-course
change of direction, I can choose to make a mid-course change of direction
and begin maybe for the first time to be that anchor that our wives desire, the
anchor that our children crave and to be the anchor that our Lord, Jesus the
Christ in Heaven expects for us to be..
Anchors are important. They put them on ships for a reason. the USS
Dwight D. Eisenhower is one of the largest ships in the world. This gigantic
aircraft carrier is, from keel to mast the size of a 22 story building. It has a
flight deck encompassing over 4 1/2 acres. It weighs over 95,000 tons and
carries 6000 sailors who are served 18,000 meals per day. This is truly a
floating city. Oh yes, one other thing, it also has two anchors.
Each anchor weighs 60,000 pounds and is attached to a chain that weighs
665,000 pounds. The chain, when stretched to full length is 1,082 feet in
length. Just one solitary link in the chain weighs 365 pounds.
every ship has an anchor. That anchor is at the very end of a long series of
individual steel links. If you trace those links you eventually get to the
anchor. It is the anchor that keeps the ship from drifting, keeps it from peril
and danger. Its the anchor that keeps the ship exactly where it is supposed to
be.
Families are exactly the same way. They need an anchor to keep them from
crashing onto the rocks of the reef, to keep them stationary when life’s
storms hit. That anchor is you and that anchor is me.
2. Fathers are being called to anchor their families for
generations.
Each family is a link in a very long chain. This chain stretches for hundreds
and even thousands of years. And it is called the family chain.
God knows the importance of family chains because HE invented them. And
that’s why God puts such importance on each father anchoring our link
successfully. There is no doubt about how much God desires for you to be
the man that HE desires and for me to be the man that He desires.
Deuteronomy 6:1-2 “Now this is the commandment, the statutes
and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded
me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you
are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your
grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes
and His commandments, which I command you, all the days of
your life, and that your days may be prolonged.”
It was Ralph Stockman who said, “What makes greatness is starting
something that will live after you.” God gives every father the opportunity to
do something great.
So what opportunity do we have as we gather here on this Fathers Day in the
year 2000?
It is to anchor our family for at least one hundred years. As a matter of fact
God expects us to anchor our families in Christ for at least 100 years!
Proverbs 13:22 “A good man leaves an inheritance for his
children’s children”
Abe Lincoln caught this idea when he said, “What’s important is not who my
ancestors were, but rather what my children and grandchildren will become.”
You may be thinking, Wait a minute! How in the world am I going to do that
as I have an overfilled plate now. I have a stressful job, I rise early and get
home late. I try to get to my kids games and even coach from time to time.
there just isn’t enough time in the day and now you’re telling me that God
wants me to lead my family for the next one hundred years. I am not sure that
I can do it for the next one hundred days! Yes, I am, but,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I have got some good news for you. God knows that you are stretched. He
sees your work and you effort to lead and provide for your family. He is not
a God who makes unreasonable demands on a man. The Bible tells us that
His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He is simply asking you to do
something that you can do and He knows it, how does He know it, because
He made you and He made me. I was talking with a guy in Bowling Green
just this pst week and we were talking about our families and he made the
greatest comment that struck me like a ton of bricks.
3. Fathers are to make spiritual deposits that will earn
spiritual interest.
Ken story.
The great thing about leading your family for the next 100 years is that it
doesn’t take any more time than it does to lead right now. How can this be?
Well it is the theory of compound interest.
That’s right compound interest. Ron Blue explains that if we were to save
$2.74 each day for 40 years and deposit that in an account making 12 1/2%
interest that we would have $1,000,000. That is a nice chunk of change and
it is the result of compound interest. This interest compounds each year and
gains momentum until a certain point when it simply goes crazy. So how
does a father put away spiritual principal that can begin to earn spiritual
compound interest? Let me answer that by simply saying, a little bit at a
time.
4. Make those deposits a little bit at a time.
That’s it, you can lead your family for Christ, you can anchor them in Christ
for the next one hundred years by simply doing a little bit at a time.
Charles Francis Adams, 19th century politician kept a diary, one day he
enetered. “wnet fishing with my son today -- a day wasted”. His son, Brook
Adams also kept a diary which is still in existance. On that same day, Brook
made this entry, “went fishing with my father-the most wonderful day of my
life!” The father thought that he ws wasting his time, but his son saw it as
an investment of time. The only way to know the differrence between
wasting and investing is to know one’s ultimate purpose in life.
But what little bits can you do? Well lets look at the a few things quickly and
then we will be done.
Obedience - to Christ
every time that you love your wife as Christ loved the church,
every time that you live with your wife in an understanding way,
every time you grant your wife honor as fellow heir of the grace of life,
each and every time that you do these you are putting away spiritual
principal.
every time that you take the time to listen to your kids,
every time that you bow your head in prayer and honor,
every time that you ask God to lead you and your family for the day,
every time that you refuse to altar that expense report,
every time that you pray for a guy who stabbed you in the back.
each and every time, God sees those actions. And God will reward those
actions.
In other words every time that you obey Christ and his word it’s as though
you are making a deposit of spiritual capital. And every time that you obey
the Lord He matches your deposit. One day you will look around and your
kids will be picking up spiritual momentum and they in turn will pass it along
to their kids, your grandkids. So obedience in the “small things” which are
really huge things.
Disclaimer on earning way to heaven:
Dads, fathers let me ask you a question, and this question is the most
important point in our time together this morning. Have you asked Christ to
be the Lord of your life? Do you realize that you have no hope to know God
and to be forgiven by Him other than thru turning your life, not just your life
but your whole life over to Christ? When you submit your life to Christ, He
will begin to change you in a number of ways. One of the most important is
that you won’t just be a father. You will be a Christian father.
When God sees a man who prefers righteousness to sin, and that preference
for righteousness lived out in his attitudes, his treatment of his wife and kids,
and the way he handles himself on the job, then that man is a man whom God
will bless. But God will not just simply bless that man. God will bless his
children. And his children’s children, and his children’s children’s children.
As a matter of fact the bible tells us in Deuteronomy that blessings will be
showed to thousands.
In Deuteronomy 7:9, we find “Therefore know that the Lord your God,
He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand
generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.”
Bamboo farmers know a lot about compound interest. In Malaysia there is a
strain of very valuable bamboo that takes great patience and wisdom to
cultivate. Here is how you do it.
Year 1: plant water fertilize = nothing happens
Year 2: water, cultivate fertilize = still nothing visible happens
Year 3: water, fertilize and cultivate and still absolutely no signs of growth or
that your work is even close to being successful.
Year 4: you guessed it, more water, more fertilizer and still absolutely
nothing.
Year 5: Again you water, and fertilize and then the bamboo grows 90 feet in
thirty days. Not nine inches, not nine feet but 90 feet. To quote an ancient
Hebrew expression>>>>>>>>> WOW!!! From zilch to the height of a nine
story building in thirty days!
So, how do you lead your family for next 100 years? You do it be being a
godly father today. And then you do it again tomorrow. Putting away
spiritual capital is living in obedience to Christ doing today what most men
are too preoccupied to do, what most men are to “manly” to do, by doing
what most men are too chicken to do. Thats the job of a christian father. Not
to be wildy successful, not to be well known. Just to be faithful. God sees
His faithful men. And God rewards His faithful men.
Every family chain, in order to survive and raise godly children, must
somewhere have a man who has a godly vision, not only for his own children,
but for the generations to come.
The fact of the matter is this: One man with vision who is anchored in Christ
can influence his family and the generations to come for hundreds of years.
Could God be calling you to be the anchor in your family? I think that that
He is calling you, He is calling you and that He is calling me!
Let me take a moment here to talk to those of you who may be divorced.
While divorce is not in God’s plan, I firmly believe that God is a God of
second chances. He allows “do-overs” You remeber those don’t you from
when we were kids. You would be up to bat and swing at the ball and
completely miss it, and then you would yell “Do Over” and the ball would be
pitched again and it would be as if the wiff had never happened. God wants
to allow you a do-over. Not in the matter of your relationship with your X
but rather with your kids. God blesses your kids in the very same way based
upon your obedience to scrip[ture and to His teachings. What am I talking
about? While you may not be able to honor your X as a joint heir, you can
still be civil and kind in your dealings with each other. You can still honor
that person in the presence of your kids, you can and should still be praying
for that person if no other reason than because they are crucial in the life of
your offspring. You see divorce and/or seperations does not automatically
allow you to disconnect from obedience.
Well this is all well and good, you may be saying to your self, all this talk
about anchors, but anchors by and of themselves are useless. And you know
you are right. In order to be of value and to keep the family from drifting, the
anchor must first find something to grasp. Every anchor man who has
affected a family for generations has grabbed on to a Rock. The same Rock.
The only Rock! And as the old hymn says,
This rock is Jesus, yes he’s the one,
This rock is Jesus, the Only One.
Be very sure, be very sure,
Your anchor holds, and grips the solid rock.
Do you know what’s wrong with Dennis Rodman and Howard Stern? Their
family chains don’t have an anchor. And that’s why they are drifting. Dennis
and Howard desperatly need to have a head-on collision. Straight into the
Rock!
Dads, what about you? Is your family drifting? Do you need to run smack
dab into the Rock? The Rock that we know as Jesus Christ?
Moms, and what about you? You see today may be Fathers Day and we
have been learning about what Dads are to do, but they need Godly wives, as
we talked about earlier those that are joint heirs. You see you have a
responsibilty too. Is it today that you step out and allow God to change your
life forever?
Young people what about you? Your dad and mom may by followers of
Christ, but that does not give you a free pass into eternity. You must make
the choice to follow Jesus Christ.
Could it be that today Jesus is standing at the door to your heart, at the door
to your soul and He is knocking, simply wanting to come in and reside with
you, oh and by the way while He is residing, He is changing, for eternity
your life, your soul and your destiny.
Wise fathers, wise mothers, wise young people have a grip on the Lord Jesus.
But here’s the good news. The Lord Jesus has an even stronger grip on you
than you have on Him. You can never grip Him as tight as He can grip you.
And if you are in His grasp, He will make sure that your anchor holds. And
by His grace it will hold for countless generations to come.
Pray, invitation
