Props To Pops (Father's Day 2023) Series

Props to Pops: Proverbs 4

Opening Video—Things Dads Say

Good morning! Please open your Bibles to Proverbs 4.

Happy Father’s Day! We are celebrating dads today. Biological dads, adoptive dads, foster dads, new dads. Men who have been like a father to us even though they aren’t your actual dad. Spiritual dads. This is your day!

We also honor and remember dads who aren’t around anymore. If this is your first father’s day without your dad, we know this day is a bittersweet day for you, and we want you to know we are praying for you.

The other day, I went to the greeting card section at Wal-Mart. I had a hunch, and I wanted to see if it was true. My hunch was this: most people, when they buy their mother a mother’s day card, it’s flowery, and sweet, and has words in gold-foil script, and it may even smell like perfume. But when they buy their father a Father’s Day card, it's funny and cartoony, and if it smells like anything, its probably either motor oil or bacon. Show of hands: if you got a father’s day card, was it funny or serious?

So I went to Wal-Mart, and I realized I was partially wrong. There are a good share of serious, sentimental Father’s day cards. And, full disclosure, there really are a lot of funny Mother’s Day cards. But there’s a difference between funny mother’s day cards and funny father’s day cards. With funny mother’s day cards, it's usually kids that are making fun of themselves. “Thanks, mom, for always taking the crust off my sandwiches.” “Thanks, mom, for not freaking out about the tattoo.” I call it the “I love you, Mom, for putting up with me” genre. But with funny father’s day cards, its more often kids making fun of their dads. This is the “We love you, Dad, that’s why we put up with you” genre.

• Dad, in your honor, I’m just going to sit on the couch and rest my eyes for a bit…

• Dads: saying more with less from the very beginning

• I love you dad, in spite of your horrible political views

Now, there’s nothing wrong with dads being able to laugh at themselves. In fact, if you couldn’t laugh at yourself, there might be something wrong with us.

But as we have been reading through Proverbs as part of our 66 in 52 series, I’m realizing that from a biblical perspective, there is way more about being a dad than fixing cars, telling jokes, and grilling meat.

Did you know that the entire book of Proverbs is basically the advice that a father would give to his son? Remember that Proverbs. Of the first seven chapters, six of them begin with “My son.” In fact, 23 verses in all begin with “My Son.” Only Genesis has more. And just to push it a little further, Proverbs has more to say about fathers than any non-historical book of the Bible. So once again, God’s timing is perfect, because we just so happen to be in Proverbs the week of Father’s Day!

With that in mind, let’s read a portion of the advice Solomon gave his son in Proverbs 4. By the way, we don’t know how many sons Solomon had. You would think with 700 wives and 300 concubines you would hear a lot more about his children, but only one son, Rehoboam, is mentioned in Scripture. So as we read this, imagine Solomon is speaking personally to Rehoboam, knowing that one day, his son would be king. But you’ll notice that Proverbs 4:1 has sons in the plural, so this isn’t just for Rehoboam.

We are going to read a lot of Proverbs 4, so I won’t ask you to stand this morning. But it isn’t going to be on the screen, so please follow along in your copy of God’s Word.

4 Hear, O sons, a father's instruction,

and be attentive, that you may gain[a] insight,

2 for I give you good precepts;

do not forsake my teaching.

3 When I was a son with my father,

tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,

4 he taught me and said to me,

“Let your heart hold fast my words;

keep my commandments, and live.

5 Get wisdom; get insight;

do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;

love her, and she will guard you.

7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,

and whatever you get, get insight.

8 Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;

she will honor you if you embrace her.

9 She will place on your head a graceful garland;