“Be a man!” What comes to mind when you hear those words? Do you picture boys egging one another on to do some daredevil stunt like riding a skateboard down a handrail? Do you picture a sergeant berating a soldier for complaining about a tough training exercise? Would you expect to find those words in the Bible? Probably not but they were spoken by a dying father to his son in 1 Kings 2. There, King David urged Solomon to be a man…of the Word, and for the Word. David’s advice is good counsel for all men, especially fathers.
I’m sure the guys at work or your golfing buddies with would laugh if you told them that at church this weekend you learned how to be a man. Most unchurched guys think that real men don’t bother going to church. They see church as a place for the weak and insecure, not for those who are sure of their masculinity. That just goes to show how little people know about the Bible, for the author of our text, King David, was anything but weak and insecure. Already as a teenager he had killed lions and bears that dared attack his father’s flock. His crowning achievement as a teenager came when he faced the nine-foot plus giant, Goliath. He did this even though seasoned veterans of King Saul’s army shook with fear at the sound of Goliath’s voice. David didn’t just face Goliath; he defeated him with one well-aimed stone to the forehead. David wasn’t just some dumb jock either who was good on the battlefield. He was also a singer/songwriter, skillful enough to play in the courts of King Saul. If anyone was a man’s man, it was David. At the end of his life David told his son Solomon the secret of being a man. If Solomon wanted to be a man, he would first of all need to become a man of God’s Word.
Fathers, are we men of the Word? Do we study it daily? Don’t think we have time for that? Then consider this. God commanded the Israelite kings to personally hand copy the first five books of the Bible and to study those copies daily (Deuteronomy 17:18-20). If God thought it was important for the kings of Israel to study his Word daily, shouldn’t it be important for us to do? And if busy kings were to find time for God’s Word, then we certainly can make time for the Word as well.
Real men don’t just read God’s Word, however, they put it into practice. David said to Solomon: “Walk in [God’s] ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go” (1 Kings 2:3b).
For a time Solomon heeded his father’s advice but as he got older, he stopped reading and living God’s Word. He listened instead to the world’s definition of a man. No longer happy with just one woman, Solomon married seven hundred women, and kept three hundred other women as concubines (1 Kings 11:3)! Solomon paid dearly for being a man of the world instead of a man of the Word. The same man who built a beautiful temple to the true God and at its dedication proclaimed that there were no other gods in the world (1 Kings 8:23), was persuaded by his wives to build altars to their idols and he eventually worshipped at them (1 Kings 11:5, 7)!
Friends, are we men of the Word or men of the world? Do we look enviously on those who bounce around from one woman to the next thinking they must be having a lot more fun than we who are married to one woman? Do we clamor to learn the latest dirty joke so we can be in with the guys? Or do we go to the other extreme and put the perceived needs of our wives ahead of God, sacrificing faithfulness to the Word to keep peace at home? If we do any of these things, we’re not being a man; we’re being cowards because it doesn’t take a lot of courage to do what the world does. No, it’s a lot harder to live by God’s Word. It takes a man to do that because the world laughs at such behavior.
Being a man doesn’t just mean reading and living God’s Word, it also means passing it on. That’s what I meant when I said that God wants us to be a man for the Word. King David demonstrated that by giving godly advice to his son Solomon. Indeed, it was more important to David to pass on to Solomon God’s Word than the riches he had accumulated.
Fathers, would you say that you are a man for the Word? Is it more important to you to pass on God’s Word than the wealth you have accumulated? We may say it’s more important for us to pass on God’s Word but do we do it? When given the chance to work overtime or be home in time for family devotions, which do you choose more often? Making a few extra bucks may seem to be a more immediate need for the family but at what eternal cost? Don’t think that your children are too young to be instructed in God’s Word. A recent study shows that brand recognition among children begins as early as 12 weeks! Companies put cartoon characters on diapers because babies recognize them. If your baby knows who Elmo is, is there any reason he can’t learn who Jesus, Moses, David, and Mary are? Of course not! They just need to be taught. So Fathers, read to your children from Bible storybooks everyday and then talk about what you’ve read. Help your children see that the stories in the Bible are not made up. Help them understand how the way God treated the people of the Bible is the way he treats us – with love and forgiveness. Don’t just reserve your Bible talks for when you’re reading your Bible storybook, however. When you see a rainbow, for example, let your children know how God put that sign in the sky to remind us that he’ll never send a worldwide flood again. The rainbow demonstrates how God always keeps his promises. Sing the songs of the liturgy at home with your children so that they can learn them and participate in worship. And when Sunday approaches, show your excitement about going to church, and your children will get excited too. Be a man…for the Word.
They say that Father Day sermons give men guilt-trips. That’s not surprising. We feel guilty because we are guilty of not being men of the Word and for the Word. So where do we go from here? Do we shrug off our guilt and promise to try better? We’ve made those promises before and haven’t done so well in keeping them, have we? So no, we don’t just promise to try better. Instead we first acknowledge our shortcomings as fathers and admit that they are damnable sins in God’s eyes.
Confessing our sins still doesn’t get rid of the guilt though does it? So are we doomed to leave church today burdened with the knowledge that we have failed as godly fathers? No. King David didn’t shoulder that kind of guilt even though he was not the world’s greatest father. You remember how he cheated on his wife (really “wives” as David had more than one wife by this time) with Bathsheba. You may also remember how David had problems with his kids, especially with is son Absalom. Absalom rebelled against David taking the throne of Israel away from him for a time. In spite of these failures as a father, God still called David a man after his own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). Why? Because God had forgiven David, and David believed and rejoiced in that forgiveness.
In the same way, the Lord has forgiven our failures as fathers. He did that by dumping our sins on Jesus who hefted those sins and our guilt up Mt. Calvary where they were all pinned to the cross. While Jesus came down from the cross, our sins and guilt did not. They’re still there firmly fastened to that tree, not to us. We have been freed of our sins and our guilt! Do you feel the burden lifted? Even if you don’t feel it, the burden of our sins and guilt has been lifted because God that’s what God says has happened in Christ. So be a man…of the Word and believe it. And now be a man…for the Word and live in that forgiveness as you rededicate yourself to the business of being a godly father. Amen.
