Whose Your Daddy?
1 Samuel 17:12-58
How many dads in the room remember the day that you became a father? I don’t know the circumstances surrounding the delivery of your first child, but I know it was a proud and scary moment.
It used to be that husbands always waited out in the waiting room for news of the delivery.
There was a group three of expectant fathers waiting for such news in the hospital waiting room.
A nurse came in and announced to one man that his wife had just given birth to twins. “That’s a coincidence – I play for the Minnesota Twins!
A few minutes later the nurse reentered the waiting room to find an other father to report that his wife had just had triples. That’s amazing – he exclaimed – I work for 3M company!
At that point, the third man slipped off his chair and fell to the floor. When the nurse came over to check what could be the matter he told her – I work for 7Up company!
It can be a scare thing to bring children into today’s world.
Top 10 things that Father’s Say:
10. Don’t ask me, ask your mother
9. Don’t worry – it’s only blood
8. Get your elbows off the table
7. A little dirt never hurt anyone – just wipe it off
6. Don’t make me stop this car!
5. This will hurt me a lot more that it will hurt you
4. Do I look like I’m made of money?
3. Two wrongs don’t make a right
2. No, were not there yet!
1. When I was your age…
People and especially Children will remember what we did more that what we said…
It was an extremely hot, muggy day in Seattle. I was riding the bus from Northwest College to my car which I had left in the Park and Ride lot just outside of Kent, Washington on my way home.
It was Friday and people were trying to get home from a long week. Everyone seemed tired by excited for the weekend because it wasn’t raining.
In Seattle, you can meet all kinds of people with different personalities. That day would be no different. As we were riding down the street one man jumped to his feet and began yelling and cursing about things and people all around him. It went on for several blocks and the bus driver was getting increasingly agitated and those riding the bus were getting increasingly ashamed for the screaming man.
Soon, the man pulled the cord signaling a desire to get off at the next stop. After the bus stopped, the name calmly walked (like a different person) to the door and the driver said these words…
“Sir you’ve left something...” What? I’ve not left anything. “You left a bad impression”
Father’s what are we leaving behind? What kind of impression are leave with our children?
Erma Bombeck wrote these words about her father…
One morning my father didn’t get up and go to work. He went to the hospital and died the next day. I hadn’t thought that much about him before. He was just someone who left and came home and seemed glad to see everyone at night. He opened the jar of pickles when no one else could. He was the only one in the house who wasn’t afraid to go to the basement by himself.
He cut himself shaving, but no one kissed it or got excited about it. It was understood when it rained, he got the car and brought it around to the door where we waited. When anyone got sick, he went out to get the prescription filled. He look lots of pictures…but he was never in them.
Whenever I played house, the mother doll had a lot to do. I never knew what to do with the daddy doll, so I had him say, ‘I’m going to work now, and threw him under the bed.
The funeral was in our living room and a lot of people came and brought all kinds of good food and cakes. We had never had so much company before. I went under my bed to feel for the daddy doll. When I found him, I dusted him off and put him on my bed. He never did anything that I remember. I didn’t know his leaving would hurt so much.
Dads – we can either be absent or present.
I’d like you to open your Bibles with me to 1 Samuel 17:12
As parents, we need to live our lives in such a way that when others see our children it causes them to start thinking. If we follow these simple steps people will be asking “whose your daddy?”
1. Building Confidence
2. Instilling Faith
3. Modeling Servanthood
Pray
1. Building Confidence
Read 1 Samuel 17:31-37
David had tremendous confidence – not in his own skill or power but in the Lord who he recognized as helping him fend off predators.
Confidence is an interesting thing – how do we get it?
We need to give our children opportunities to succeed. It is really a process that we as parents must make begins in the lives of our children.
People are not born with confidence – it is built in us.
Confidence builds through a series of small victories.
Let me give your three quick ways to begin building confidence in your children:
a. Thank God in advance for the victory we have in Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57 says, Thanks be to God. He give us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
b. Be fully assured of God’s ability to complete whatever work he begins. Phil. 1:6 says, Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completing until the day of Christ Jesus.
c. Consistently ask the Lord for specific requests and keep a record of who he answers them. Hebrews 4:16 says, Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
2. Instilling Faith
1 Samuel 17:38-54
Instill: to cause to enter; to impart gradually
Like confidence, faith is instilled through a process.
We need to look for opportunities to bridge the everyday events of our lives to placing our faith in Christ.
Faith in God will not get for you everything you may want, but it will get for you what God wants you to have. The unbeliever does not need what he wants: the Christian should want only what he needs.
n Vance Havner in By the Still Waters.
David had a lot of faith in God because of the confidence that was built over the many times God had delivered him from lions and bears – predators.
David saw Goliath as only another predator. He was going to mow him down.
Now I would like to pay special attention to the five stones that David gathered from the stream.
Why five stones? I have a theory – it is a theory because this immediate text doesn’t support what I’m about to say although it seems very likely:
There were other giants like Goliath on the battle field also.
1 Chronicles 20:4
3. Modeling Servanthood
1 Samuel 17:55-58
Mark 10:45
How do we model servanthood?
