Who’s Your Daddy?
Preached 06-24-04 by Captain PB Stetser
As with all of my sermons, the PowerPoint slides I used are available if you think they would be helpful. Simply email me at PBStetser@use.salvationarmy.org and request the slides for the specific sermon.
Blessings!
PB
(begin with a David Letterman type top ten list about dads)
Father’s Day facts
• Began in Spokane, Washington.
– Sonora Smart Dodd thought of it while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909.
• Sonora wanted her father to know how special he was to her.
– Her father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father’s Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910.
• 1926 National Father’s Day Committee formed in New York City.
– Father’s Day was recognized by a Joint Resolution of Congress in 1956.
– In 1972, President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father’s Day to be held on the third Sunday of June.
Dreary Statistics
• 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes --U.S. D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census
• 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes --Center for Disease Control
• 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes
--Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 14, p. 403-26
• 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes --National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools
• 70% of juveniles in state operated institutions come from fatherless homes --U.S. Dept. of Justice, Special Report Sept., 1988
• 85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home --Fulton County Georgia jail populations & Texas Dept. of Corrections, 1992
• Translated, this means that children from a fatherless home are:
• 5 times more likely to commit suicide
• 32 times more likely to run away
• 20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders
• 14 times more likely to commit rape
• 9 times more likely to drop out of school
• 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances
• 9 times more likely to end up in a state operated institution
• 20 times more likely to end up in prison
• STAY WITH ME!
• I’m not saying things are hopeless
• I’m not saying single Moms can’t raise well balanced, good kids
• Just that it is harder …
We all have different kinds of fathers
• Birth
– Sometimes best
• Family
– Adoption, etc.
• Historical
– Early Church Fathers, etc
• Surrogate
– We all need role models!
• Spiritual
– Maybe most important!
GOOD NEWS!
Psalm 10:14 14 But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; You consider it to take it in hand.The victim commits himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.
Hosea 14: 3c ”in You the fatherless find compassion”
Galatians 4:6-7 6 And because you Gentiles have become his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father. 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you
Psalms 103:13 The LORD is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him
Romans 8:15-17 15 So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God’s very own children, adopted into his family —calling him “Father, dear Father.” 16 For his Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are his children, we will share his treasures—for everything God gives to his Son, Christ, is ours, too. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering
God Our Father
• Jews had always looked at God in awe
– fear and trembling!
• Jesus introduced a different word …
– “Abba” = DADDY
(the following is the text of an email I received. I cannot attest to it’s veracity but it certainly touched my folks. I found some generic photos I used to tell the story with that are on the Power Point slides)
Who’s Your Daddy?
A seminary professor was vacationing with his wife in Gatlinburg, TN. One morning, they were eating breakfast at little restaurant, hoping to enjoy a quiet, family meal. While they were waiting for their food, they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting with the guests. The professor leaned over and whispered to his wife, "I hope he doesn’t come over here." But sure enough, the man did come over to their table. "Where are you folks from?" he asked in a friendly voice.
"Oklahoma," they answered.
"Great to have you here in Tennessee." the stranger said. "What do you do for a living?"
"I teach at a seminary," he replied.
"Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I’ve got a really great story for you." And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with the couple. The professor groaned and thought to himself, "Great... Just what I need another preacher story!"
The man started, "See that mountain over there pointing out the restaurant window. Not far from the base of that mountain, there was a boy born to an unwed mother. He had a hard time growing up, because every place he went, he was always asked the same question, ’Hey boy, Who’s your daddy?’ "Whether he was at school, in the grocery store or drug store, people would ask the same question, ’Who’s your daddy?’
He would hide at recess and lunch time from other students. He would avoid going in to stores because that question hurt him so bad. "When he was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to his church. He would always go in late and slip out early to avoid hearing the question, ’Who’s your daddy?’. But one day, the new preacher said the benediction so fast he got caught and had to walk out with the crowd.
"Just about the time he got to the back door, the new preacher, not knowing anything about him, put his hand on his shoulder and asked him, ’Son, who’s your daddy?’" The whole church got deathly quiet. He could feel every eye in the church looking at him. Now everyone would finally know the answer to the question, ’Who’s your daddy’. This new preacher, though, sensed the situation around him and using discernment that only the Holy Spirit could give, said the following to that scared little boy
"’Wait a minute!’ he said. ’I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God. With that he patted the boy on his shoulder and said, ’Boy, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.’
With that, the boy smiled for the first time in a long time and walked out the door a changed person. He was never the same again.
Whenever anybody asked him, ’Who’s your Daddy?’ he’d just tell them, ’I’m a Child of God’." The distinguished gentleman got up from the table and said, "Isn’t that a great story?"
The professor responded that it really was a great story!
As the man turned to leave, he said, "You know, if that new preacher hadn’t told me that I was one of God’s children, I probably never would have amounted to anything!" And he walked away.
The seminary professor and his wife were stunned. He called the waitress over and asked her, "Do you know who that man was who just left that was sitting at our table?"
The waitress grinned and said, "Of course. Everybody here knows him. That’s Ben Hooper. He’s the former governor of Tennessee!"
Someone in your life today needs a reminder that they’re one of God’s children!
God our DADDY!
• Regardless our father here …
– Actual
– Surrogate
– Spiritual
• Or a total lack of fatherly guidance here … HE is our DADDY!
• There’s more!
At this point I showed a few minutes of the DVD “Finding Nemo” I used the segment where Marlin starts telling the story and it shows how the story spreads till Nemo hears it.
Because He’s our Daddy
• He fought for us
• He cared for us even more than Marlin did for Nemo
• He did more for us
• Our Daddy sent Jesus to bring us into the family!
Leave with this …
• No matter what your experience has been …
• If you have come into a personal relationship …
– God is your Father
– More than that, He is your DADDY!
• Remember that you are a child of God
• When you are feeling
– Beat down
– Hurting
– Alone
• You have a Daddy who loves you and cares for you!
