The Model Father

Introductory Comments

1. Today is Father's day - a day on which we look at the role of fathers. Our the image of a perfect father is someone we can trust and who can tell us what is right and what is wrong. Someone who can take care of us. Someone to answer our many questions. Someone we can come home to when we feel lost.

2. We all have or had fathers. None of them are or were perfect. How we see our fathers is dependent upon the kind of father they were and yet it is also dependent upon our age.

3. I found an article called Father which shows how we might perceive our father at different stages in our lives - sometimes as perfect and sometimes as very imperfect. This is what we might say about our father at different ages.

at 4 years - "My daddy can do anything"

at 7 years - "My daddy knows a lot, a whole lot"

at 8 years - "My father doesn't quite know everything"

at 12 years - "Oh well, off course Father doesn't know everything"

at 14 years - "Father, oh he is so old-fashioned"

at 21 - "Oh that man is out of date. What did you expect?"

at 25 - "He knows a little bit about it but not much"

at 30 - "I must find out what Dad thinks about it"

at 50 - "What would Dad have thought about it?"

at 60 - "I wish I could talk it over with Dad once more"

4. Our fathers are not perfect although they may not be as imperfect as we think. The truth may lie somewhere between these two extremes.

5. Being a father is an important yet difficult task. The authority and role of fathers is being lost. We may even feel somewhat pushed to the side. We may question our role in a changing world. We need a role model to look to as an example of what a father should be the models before us are far from ideal.

6. Tool Time Tim is an insecure father who is portrayed as a bumbling fool and other television fathers are seen as the one to made the most fun of in their families. We have come a long way from Father Knows Best today we rather say Father Knows Worst.

7. We may laugh at these fathers, but there is a real danger here those who watch these shows, including children, loose respect for the fathers and the role of fatherhood as well.

8. The good news is that we have a perfect model of what a father should be. A model that calls us to respect our fathers and a model that those of us who are fathers can seek to follow.

9. The one perfect father is the one who is the father of us all - our heavenly Father - God Himself. God is perfect and while we are not, we are called to be holy as He is holy. We are to seek to be the type of Father that He is. In fact as earthly fathers we have a role not only bring up our children as God calls us to.

10. And we also are to be the type of father that helps our children understand what kind of a father God is to us all.

11. I have come across many whose view of God is based on the kind of father they had. If there father was legalistic they see God as a God who demands a strict adherence to rules. If their father was gracious they are better able to see God as a gracious God. If their father did not remain faithful, they have trouble trusting God because they fear that He will desert them some day.

Teaching

1. Today we take a look at our perfect father to see how blessed we are to have him as our father and to help fathers see how God calls them to fulfil their role. We could go through the bible and find examples of God's faithfulness and grace but we will focus on one passage - a parable we are all very familiar with. A parable is a earthly story which represents a heavenly truth. The parable of the prodigal son represents a person, a son, a child of God and his relationship with his heavenly Father. In fact, as I had left my heavenly father for five years and came back, I know God very well as the Father in this parable.

2. He is like this Father for all of us, whether we leave Him for 6 years or even for just a week.

3. Two points before we see a few traits of what a perfect father is to be like of whom is God the Father of?