Who's Your Daddy?

TITLE: WHO’S YOUR DADDY

SCRIPTURE: ST. LUKE 2:41-52

I thought it important that we spend a few minutes this morning to recognize what our society has dubbed this Third Sunday of June each year to be “FATHER’S DAY.” We are beginning to see more men return to the Universal Church and experiencing this growth of brothers joining us at PPWC. So today we join this day in America and many other places around the world where men are honored for their accomplishments as fathers. Today, I want us to see how WE NEED MORE THAN JUST FATHER’S - we need DADDY’s!

• We need more than just a figure head

• We need more than a distant parental figure

• We need more than someone to spend two weekends a month or every other holiday

• We need more than someone that sends a card every year on your birthday

• We need men to step up and be Daddy’s

The Bible is full of great examples of not only Father’s but outstanding Daddy’s that we could emulate today.

• ABRAHAM – you remember Abraham don’t you? I was so glad when we stopped singing that song in the church – Father Abraham, Had Many Sons, and Many Son’s Had Father Abraham.

• JOSEPH – you remember who would serve as the Earthly Father of our Savior. Although there are not many versus devoted to him in the Bible, we lift him up as a good hard working father and provider who would raise a child that was not his biological child. A child conceived of the Holy Ghost

• Don’t forget our Heavenly Father - The Father who did what he asked Abraham to do - to offer up his son as a living sacrifice. Only no one was there to stop the hands of His executioners, no ram in the bush was found.

MEN WE NEED TO BECOME DADDY’S TO OUR CHILDREN. This takes a lot of effort! It isn’t going to just happen by accident! We need daddy’s to set the example for their children by a life that we model to them each and every day. This MODELING THE WAY does not end when our children turn 18 and begin to launch out with a career path of their own. We must be the Model that they look up too all the days of our lives. I am finding it more challenging to model the way as a Father the older I get.

• My children, Nieces, Nephews are watching differently now as they approach their 30’s than they did when they were much younger

• My grandchildren watch me differently at their ages

• It is important that they see my commitment as a Daddy, Uncle, Grandfather

• More importantly see the Christ in me

It is up to us to model how to be a Christian, a sincere Christian, not just a Title Wearing Christian. One that is all that he says and does is right not only in the Church, but all aspects of our lives. It’s up to us to model for our children good decision making abilities - decisions based on scripture, and based on our desire to put the Lord first in our lives.

• Do they see you choosing to study your Bible and have a devotion with them

• Or do they just see you flop down in your Lazy Boy chair and click on the TV?

• Do they see you making a wise decision to abstain from alcohol, and to drink juice, iced tea, or water instead?

• Do they see you model the decision to practice compassion, like the Good Samaritan

• Or do they hear you complain about how all that people want is a handout from the world?

Let’s run over and examine our text this morning and catch up with Jesus’ narrative about His Daddy! According to God’s law, it was mandatory for every Jewish male, after becoming an adult to go to the Jewish Feasts.

• In spring it was the Passover followed by the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread

• Passover being the most important one of all

• According to Jewish laws and traditions any male from the age of 12 was considered an adult

• Jesus, being of age, had to attend these feasts but did not spend much time with his parents during the celebrations

In the Jewish Law it was mandatory to attend religious events of the day. Sometimes I think that going to Church and supporting the life of your home Church should be mandatory if we say we are believers. I am always disturbed when Christians find nothing but CRITICISM and WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE CHURCH. But that is how God has designed the Church after the resurrection of Christ. We have a choice to see the beauty of the Church that Christ designed and see and enjoy the beauty of His presence when the saints gather together for Worship or see what is wrong. I am glad it is not mandatory according to our Christian values, that way we must continue to evolve and meet the needs of God’s people as we grow and mature in His grace.