Who's Your Daddy?

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.