Father’s Day 2003
Ephesians 6:1-3
INTRO.- ILL.- A small boy said, "Father’s Day is just like Mother’s Day, only you don’t spend as much on the gift."
And I say, "What gift?"
ILL.- 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 the 21, I was astonished at how much the old man learned in 7 years."
ILL.- Popular comedian/entertainer Bill Cosby wrote, "Now that my father is a grandfather he just can’t wait to give money to my kids. But when I was a kid and I asked him for 50 cents, he would tell me the story of his life. How he got up at 5 a.m. when he was 70-years-old and walked 23 miles to milk 90 cows. And the farmer for whom he worked had no bucket, so he had to squirt the milk into his little hand and then walk 8 miles to the nearest can. All for 5 cents. The result was...I never got my 50 cents.
"But now he tells my children every time he comes into the house, ’Well, let’s see how much money old Granddad has for his wonderful grandkids.’ And the minute they take money out of his hands I call them over to me and I snatch it away from them. BECAUSE THAT IS MY MONEY."
ILL.- Someone wrote these humorous word 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.
Brethren, I suppose we who are fathers could probably add a couple of quotes to this list.
Being a parent and a father can be an interesting and trying experience.
ILL.- Someone said, "Parents spend the first part of a child’s life urging him to talk and walk, and the rest of his childhood telling him to sit down and keep quiet."
ILL.- One father said to his teenage son, "Do you mind if I use the car tonight? I’m taking your mother out to eat and I would like to impress her."
ILL.- Father said to his daughter, "What’s wrong, Judy? Usually you talk on the phone for hours. This time you only talked for 30 minutes. How come?"
Judy replied, "It was the wrong number."
ILL.- A letter from a college student to his parents read, "Please send food packages! All they serve here is breakfast, lunch and dinner."
ILL.- Another son wrote home to his dad. He said, "Dear Dad, Please let me hear from you more often, even if it’s only five or ten."
Both parenting and fatherhood can be a real trial. And yet a real blessing.
Brethren, we are here today to remember the Lord and honor our earthly fathers. We need to do both.
PROP.- I want us to think about some of the things for which we should say, "Thanks, Dad!"
1- Thanks for material provision
2- Thanks for faithful instruction
3- Thanks for godly illustration
I. THANKS FOR MATERIAL PROVISION
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."
Wow! That’s powerful. If a father does not provide materially for his family (food, clothing, shelter) then he has denied the faith of Christ and is worse than unbelievers.
Why would such a father be worse than unbelievers? BECAUSE EVEN UNBELIEVERS PROVIDE FOR THEIR FAMILIES!
ILL.- My dad passed away on Dec. 11, 1982. If he was alive today he would be almost 93 years old. He lived to be 72. Dad drove a truck for most of his life. He hauled livestock to and from the Joplin, MO, stockyards. He hauled hogs, cattle, and sheep. Dad didn’t make much money but we always had food on the table and clothes to wear.
The old house we lived wasn’t much but we didn’t care. It was old, certainly nothing fancy and for a long time, we had no inside bathroom, BUT IT WAS HOME!
Dad was a truck driver, not a carpenter. However, when it was decided we needed a bathroom and another room on the old house, DAD BUILT IT. It wasn’t perfect but it served the purpose.
Dad always took my older brother Larry and me to the barber shop. Paid for our haircuts. And when money was tight, he got out the clippers and zip went our hair. AT LEAST, IT WAS COOL!
We didn’t have a car when I was small. If we went somewhere we all piled in Dad’s old International Harvester truck...a two-seater and no sleeper! And all three kids were on mom’s lap!
DID I THINK MY DADDY PROVIDED FOR ME? Sure, I did. I honestly don’t remember missing out on anything.
WHAT ABOUT YOUR DADDY? Did he provide for you? He probably did and you need to thank him for it if he is still alive. Or at least, give thanks to God that he did!
ILL.- Boyce Mouton is a preacher friend in Carl Junction, MO, which is near Joplin. He said these words about his grandfather which I think are appropriate. "My grandfather, R.C. Myers, came from Kentucky. He married a Kansas girl and settled down in Indian territory, which later become Oklahoma.
"They had 16 children. It never occurred to my grandfather than the government should take care of his family. That was his responsibility. He was a law officer before statehood, but became a sharecropper in order to feed his family. Their poverty did not discourage him from the personal pride of caring for his own.
"He raised his children without the benefit of electricity or running water. He died without ever having a driver’s license. His children, nevertheless, grew up to be hard-working, patriotic, and devout. I am confident, that in spite of his poverty, he did a better job of providing for his own than the government."
Thank God! And thank God for all the fathers who provide as best they can for their families! Thank you, Fathers!
II. THANKS FOR FAITHFUL INSTRUCTION
Eph. 6:4 "Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord."
CEV "Parents, don’t be hard on your children. Raise them properly. Teach them and instruct them about the Lord."
LB "Don’t keep on scolding and nagging your children, making them angry and resentful. Rather, bring them up with the loving discipline the Lord himself approves."
Fathers do instruct their children about many things.
ILL.- My dad used to say to me, "Steven, pay attention to what you’re doing." For some reason, he always said that to me. And for the life of me I can’t figure out why.
ILL.- When my kids were growing up I would instruct them, "Don’t be afraid to ask questions in school. You’ll never learn anything if you don’t ask questions."
And like many parents, I’m sure I said, "I don’t care if everybody’s doing it, you’re not going to."
Fathers have given all kinds of instruction to their children about such things as: school, work, relationships, dating, driving a car, etc.
ILL.- Again, my friend Boyce Mouton said of his father after he passed away, "More memorable than my household responsibilities were the endless streams of ’corrections’ which came my way. My father never stopped correcting me. Just a short while before he died, he looked at me from his hospital bed and said, ’Why don’t you get rid of that paunch?’"
Boyce went on to say, "I gave reverence to my earthly father. I WAS AFRAID NOT TO! He would have taken a belt to me if I dared to disobey. He tried to teach me anything that would help me in life. I was thumped on the back a thousand times and told to ’straighten up!’
"He insisted that I take my elbows off the table and stop eating like an animal. He never hesitated to tell me to wash my face, comb my hair, brush my teeth, or shine my shoes. Sometimes he would say, You act like you fell out of a hickory nut tree on your head.’ Or worse, he would say, ’You’d have to go to summer school before they’d let you in the Insane Asylum.’"
ILL.- A man by the name of Jim Burton said these words about being a father. "When I was young, baseball was my life. You can imagine the excitement I felt when my oldest son began playing. This game would be one of our main bonding mechanisms. If my son would just listen, I could help him be a great baseball player. Learning to read curve balls, shift his body weight with the swing, steal bases, turn double plays - these things separate the amateurs from the pros."
Burton said, "A pattern developed in our relationship. Because of my familiarity with the game, I saw every mistake my son made. In addition, I knew how to correct them.
"So post-game drives home became a critique of how to improve his game. It soon got old for my son. One night he finally said, ’DAD, COULD YOU NOT START BY TELLING ME EVERYTHING I DID WRONG. TELL ME WHAT I DID RIGHT FIRST.’"
Brethren, faithful instruction is important, but we have to be careful how we deliver it. All criticism and no praise is not good.
ARE YOU A COACH OR A CRITIC?
Eph. 6:4 Paul said, "Don’t keep on scolding and nagging your children, making them angry and resentful...."
ILL.- Here is the sad confession of one father. "I took my children to school but not to church. I taught them to drink but not of the living water. I enrolled them in Little League but not Sunday School. I showed them how to fish but not to be fisher of men. I made the Lord’s Day a holiday, rather than a holy day."
"I taught them the church was full of hypocrites and made the greater hypocrite of them and me.
"I gave them a color TV but provided no Bible. I handed them the keys to the car but did not give to them the keys of the kingdom of God. I taught them how to make a living but failed to bring them to Christ who alone can make a life."
Brothers and sisters, you need to thank your father for the faithful instruction he gave you in life...for all the good advice. And especially, if that instruction included the Lord!
1- Thanks for material provision
2- Thanks for faithful instruction
III. THANKS FOR GODLY ILLUSTRATION
By this, I mean a godly illustration for life. Or a godly example for life.
I Cor. 11:1 Paul said to the Corinthians who were his children in the faith, "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”
Please notice: Paul didn’t say, "Do everything I do." He said, "Do everything I do which is Christlike." Or follow the example of Christ. Paul wasn’t perfect and neither are we.
Brethren, there are some things that I have done in life that I do not want my children to do. I’m sorry when I have given them a bad example. But I have also done some good things, some godly things, some Christlike things, which I hope they will copy from my life. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING BEING; loving people!
ILL.- One man said, "When I was a teenager, Dad would come in my room and say, ’C’mon, kid, let’s go.’ "’Where to?’ ’Lucy’s.’"
"Once a month Dad would visit Lucy Butchko, a woman whose body was twisted and pinned into a wheelchair by arthritis. He would reach his big arms around her frail body and lift her out of the wheelchair and place her in the front seat of our brown station wagon. Then he would fold the wheelchair, throw it in back, and drive Lucy to the monthly Communion service for shut-ins. Dad was a Vice President of a publishing company who shuttled shut-ins."
"Later, while in the hospital, trying to recover from a massive heart attack, Dad found out that a family down the street didn’t have enough money to buy groceries. So he wrote them a check. IT WAS THE LAST THING HE EVER WROTE, AND A LASTING LESSON."
Brethren, all I can say is, WHAT A FATHER THAN MAN WAS! And what a great illustration of Christ he was to his son!
ILL.- Here’s another. One man said of his father, "Once when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus. Finally, there was only one family between us and the ticket counter. This family made a big impression on me. There were 8 children, all probably under the age of 12. You could tell they didn’t have a lot of money. Their clothes were not expensive, but they were clean.
"The children were well-behaved, all of them standing in line, two-by-two behind their parents, holding hands. They were excitedly jabbering about the clowns, elephants, and other acts they would see that night. One could sense they had never been to a circus before. It promised to be a highlight of their young lives. The father and mother were at the head of the pack standing proud as could be.
“The mother was holding her husband’s hand, looking up at him as if to say, ’You’re my knight in shining armor.’ He was smiling and basking in pride, looking at her.
"The ticket lady asked the father how many tickets he wanted. He proudly said, ’Please, let me buy 8 children’s tickets and two adult tickets so I can take my family to the circus.’ THE TICKET LADY QUOTED THE PRICE. The man’s wife let go of his hand, her head dropped and the man’s lip began to quiver. The father leaned a little closer and asked, ’HOW MUCH DID YOU SAY?’ The ticket lady again quoted the price.
"The man didn’t have enough money. How was he supposed to turn and tell his 8 kids that he didn’t have enough money to take them to the circus? Seeing what was going on, my dad put his hand in his pocket, pulled out a $20 bill and dropped it on the ground. (And we were not wealthy in any sense of the word) My father reached down, picked up the bill, tapped the man on the shoulder and said, ’EXCUSE ME, SIR, I BELIEVE THIS FELL OUT OF YOUR POCKET.’
"The man knew what was going on. He wasn’t begging for a handout but certainly appreciated the help in a desperate, heartbreaking, embarrassing situation. He looked straight into my dad’s eye, took my dad’s hand in both of his, squeezed tightly onto the $20 bill, and with quivering lips and a tear streaming down his cheek, replied, ’THANK YOU, THANK YOU. THIS REALLY MEANS A LOT TO ME AND MY FAMILY.’"
Brethren, the man telling the story about his father, said, "My father and I went back to our car and drove home. We didn’t go to the circus that night, but we didn’t go without."
What a father that man was! What a godly illustration of Christ! Thank God for all fathers who have been godly illustrations, godly examples to follow!
CONCLUSION------------------------------------------
ILL.- A LETTER TO DAD
There are so many things I’d like
To tell you face to face;
I either lack the words or fail
To find the time and place.
But in this special letter, Dad,
You’ll find, at least in part,
The feelings that the passing years
Have left within my heart.
The memories of childhood days
And all that you have done,
To make our home a happy place
And growing up such fun!
I still recall the walks we took,
The games we often played;
Those confidential chats we had
While resting in the shade.
This letter comes to thank you, and,
For needed words of praise;
The counsel and the guidance, too,
That shaped my grown-up days.
No words of mine can tell you, Dad,
The things I really feel;
But you must know my love for you
Is lasting, warm and real.
You made my world a better place,
And through the coming years;
I’ll keep these memories of you
As cherished souvenirs. ...
