FATHER’S DAY - 2002
INTRO.- ILL.- Susan from St. Louis said, "I was preparing breakfast on Father’s Day morning when I told my 3-year-old to go and wish his daddy a "Happy Father’s Day." I repeated the phrase several times and we practiced it together so he would remember. By the time he made his way into the living room he had already forgotten what to say but improvised with, ‘Happy … Happy … Happy Man’s Day, Daddy!’"
Eph. 6:2 "Honor your father and your mother, which is the first commandment with a promise."
We are commanded by our Heavenly Father to honor our earthly fathers and mothers. Not only are we commanded to do this, we should want to do this.
My father, Leo Shepherd, was not a perfect father, but he was a good father who loved me, provided for me, protected me, and tried to guide me as best he could.
FATHERS, WE BLESS YOU! We ask God to bless you!
ILL.- MY FATHER’S HANDS by Carrie Bobb
We often hear parents say how proud they are of their children, but I am one daughter who is proud of her dad. My father is an orthopedic hand surgeon. But it wasn’t until I grew up that I began to realize what he really did for a living; as a kid, all I knew was that Dad left in the morning to go to work as every grown-up had to.
To me he was cool because he taught me how to ride my bike and he would put a Band-Aid on my skinned knee when I fell. Dad barbecued the best hamburgers and cheered the loudest at my volleyball games. He also helped me study for biology tests and brought home donuts on Sunday mornings. He’d even get up early just to wash my car before I woke up. Sometimes before school, I’d peek through the crack of his office door and find him buried in his Bible. Every time I see the coffee rings on his desk blotter, I picture him during his early morning devotions.
Mom says that as people get older they become more of who they truly are. That’s true for my dad. And now that I am older, I have a deeper appreciation not only for what he does but for the man he is. His depth of character and gentle heart have only grown stronger through the years.
When I went away to college, our relationship became more of what it already was. I sent postcards to his office, and he flew out on weekends to watch me play volleyball. I so enjoyed getting his e-mails with motivational quotes at the bottom that I saved them. It’s funny: You can live with a person all your life and begin to see who that person truly is only when you move a thousand miles away.
Dad has let me make mistakes in life, but he has loved me regardless of my bumps and bruises. In his own subtle way, he has guided me in my relationship with God, encouraging me to develop faith as something that is mine, not something merely given me by my parents.
It seems almost ironic to me that he is an orthopedic hand surgeon. The steady hands that held the back of my bicycle seat and washed my car are the same hands that fix other people’s hands. People’s lives are different — they can again play the piano and paint and build sandcastles and take pictures — all because of my dad. God uses my father’s hands to create miracles.
Yet all of his awards and accomplishments seem more significant to me because he was a father first and a doctor second. I take delight in what he does, but he’s what makes my heart swell with pride.
You see, everyone else calls him Doctor. But I get to call him Dad.
Bless you, Carrie Bobb, for your good words about your loving father.
PROP.- I want to honor our fathers today by considering different aspects of a father’s life from Scripture.
1- A father’s instruction
2- A father’s discipline
3- A father’s love
I. A FATHER’S INSTRUCTION
Prov. 1:8 "Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching." A father instructs and a mother teaches.
Could it be that a father tells and a mother teaches? Could I make something of this? Instruction should include both telling and teaching from life.
Prov. 4:1 "Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding."
Why are these Scriptures always pointed to sons? Why not daughters? Do we sons have more to learn that daughters? Do we go astray more? Are we more aggressive?
ILL.- Someone wrote these humorous words entitled, "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.
- Don’t forget to check the oil.
- Bring back all the change.
- 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!
- Who’s paying the bills around here, anyway?
- If you break your leg don’t come running to me.
- Don’t put your feet on the furniture. Your mother will kill you.
- Get down before you kill yourself. On second thought, go ahead.
- Quit playing with your food.
- Be quiet! Can’t you see I’m trying to think!
- Why? Because I said so!
- If you don’t quit that I’m going to call your mother.
- You better get that junk picked up before your mother comes in here.
- Just wait till you have kids of your own.
- I was not asleep. I was just resting my eyes.
What kind of instruction did your father give you? I’m sure he instructed you about some things, either secular things or sacred things.
ILL.- My dad used to instruct my older brother Larry and me on how to change oil in our cars. He also showed us or instructed us about changing spark plugs, ignition points, etc.
That instruction was very practical and useful. Dad was teaching us certain skills. And he was teaching us that we could do some things for ourselves. That we didn’t always have to depend on someone else for something.
Many of you men are able to do things today because your father taught you how. You need to be thankful for the skills your father taught you.
Fathers also instruct us in the realm of the sacred, that is, going to church, reading the Bible, prayer, Christian service, etc. Do you go to church today because your Father? How about reading the Bible? How about treating people right because your father gave you that good example?
ILL.- I remember one time when I lived in the small town of Iberia, MO. We had only one grocery store in town. My son Shane was small, about three years old at the time, and we pulled into a parking space at that grocery store. A man in the car next to us was smoking a cigarette. It was summer and the car windows were down. Shane piped up and said to that man, "We don’t smoke cigarettes and drink beer." He learned that from his mom and dad.
ILL.- One mother said "While I was driving with my 7-year-old daughter, Katie, she kept encouraging me to go faster. I explained to her that I was already going the speed limit and could not legally drive any faster. Not satisfied with my reasoning, Katie replied, ‘You need to get a car like Dad’s. It has a faster speed limit!’"
We parents do teach or instruct our children in one way or another. If you have learned any good Christian things from your father, then thank God and thank Him if he’s still alive!
II. A FATHER’S DISCIPLINE
Prov. 15:5 "A fool spurns his father’s discipline, but whoever heeds correction shows prudence."
ILL.-Ann from Florida said, "While listening to the song ‘Train Up a Child,’ my daughter asked me what ‘train up’ means. I explained that it means to teach children about God and the difference between right and wrong. ‘Are you and Daddy training me up?’ she asked. ‘We’re trying to,’ I said. Emily turned back to the stereo and muttered, ‘We’ll see about that.’"
It takes discipline to train up a child and fathers and mothers use various methods to discipline their children.
ILL.- Jennifer from California wrote, "Our 3-year-old son, Jerrod, spends hours playing in his sandbox. He was told that the sand stays inside the sandbox. One afternoon things were particularly quiet in the backyard, so I went outside to check on Jerrod only to find him throwing sand outside the sandbox. Deciding this would be a good teaching opportunity, I walked toward the sandbox with a broom and dustpan and asked Jerrod to sweep up the mess he’d made. After he was done sweeping, I asked him what he had learned from this situation. He thought for a moment and then replied, ‘Mmm…. that I like to sweep!’"
ILL.- A father of a teenage son said to his neighbor, "Junior’s at that awkward age. He’s too old for spanking and too young for analysis."
I wonder what that age is?!
ILL.- I know that Gary Edwards told us in Sunday School one day that when he was 16 years-old his mother spanked/swatted him with a fly swatter. He apparently wasn’t too old to be spanked or disciplined!
As long as children are at home, they are not too old to be disciplined.
Prov. 13:24 "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him."
Prov. 22:15 "Folly (or foolishness) is bound up in a heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him."
How did your father discipline you? The method is not so important as just doing the job.
ILL.- One man who attained a high position in life attributed his success to two factors. He said, "I was brought up at the knees of a devoted mother and across the knees of a determined father."
ILL.- Someone said that a child’s character can be improved by a pat on the back provided that pat is administered often enough, hard enough and low enough.
You need to thank God today if you had a father who loved you enough to take the time to discipline you.
III. A FATHER’S LOVE
Prov. 3:1-3 "My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you...." These words sound like a father talking to his son, but in reality, it’s the wisdom of God speaking. Let love never leave you.
ILL.- A Father’s Love
We hear about a mother’s love
In story and in song,
How staunch it is through trial and storm,
How tender and strong,
How sweet and pure and beautiful;
And every word is true.
But what about a father’s love?
That claims some notice, too.
A father delves the darksome mine
And climbs the girders high
And swings upon the scaffolding
Between the earth and sky.
It’s father who bends his aching back
And bows his graying head
To bear the burdens of the day
And earn the children’s bread.
For both must work and both must plant
And do an equal share
To rear the little ones the Lord
Has trusted to their care.
All honor to the mother’s love;
The universe it fills.
But when you praise it, don’t forget
That father pays the bills.
How do fathers demonstrate their love? One way is by going to work! By providing for their family.
I Tim. 5:8 "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."
Anyway you look at it, a father should provide for his family as best he can. That’s a part of loving them. But there is more to loving our children than just providing for them.
ILL.- In the Diary of Brooks Adams is a note about a special day when he was eight-years-old. He wrote, "went fishing with my father; the most glorious day of my life," and through the next forty years there were constant references to that day and the influence it had on his life.
His dad took him fishing. His dad spent time with him. I think that is called an act of love. The action of love. WHAT DID YOUR FATHER DO WITH YOU OR FOR YOU?
ILL.- In the summer of 1957 my parents took the three of us Shepherd kids to Anaheim, CA, to visit Disneyland. Disneyland had only opened two years before in 1955. I was not yet 13 years old at the time. I’m sure it was great, but I don’t remember a thing about it! I know that sounds terrible, but as I look back I now realize what a great sacrifice of time and money that was to drive all the way out there. It had to be a tremendous act of love! And it wouldn’t have happened had it not been for my dad earning the money, taking the time off from work, and driving all that distance from Joplin, MO.
There are many ways that fathers show love to their children and for their children.
ILL.- Michael W. Smith is a very popular contemporary Christian soloist. Here is what he said about his father. "WHEN MY DAD COMES UP missing at a dinner party, I always know where to find him: in the kitchen. He’ll be in there, apron around his waist, washing dishes. That’s just one example of his servant’s heart. Serving seems to come naturally and effortlessly for my father. I remember one time he was working in the garage and he saw an elderly lady carrying a bag of groceries by our house. He immediately went out to help her. Time and again, I’ve watched him drop whatever he was doing to help someone carry a bag of groceries, fix a car or repair a broken appliance. I hope someday I’ll be as good at serving others as he is. If that happens, I’ll have to say, ‘I learned it from my dad.’"
Michael W. Smith is a blessed man to have such a loving father.
Brothers and sisters, if you have or had a loving father, then thank God and imitate that love!
CONCLUSION-------------------------------------
ILL.- One winter day a man found it necessary to go see a neighbor who lived beyond a steep and rugged mountain. He had climbed the dangerous trail for some time through the drifted snow when suddenly he heard a voice behind him call out, "BE CAREFUL, DADDY, I’M WALKING IN YOUR STEPS."
God bless you, Fathers! Bless you in your fathering. Bless you in your walk through life.
