Classic Christianity – Fathers Day Part 2 (06-20-19)
Bob George teaches a Father’s day message. From the spelling of “Father”, Bob shares characteristics of a father. These characteristics in a father have great impact on our children. Those same things also apply to mothers.
F – Faithfulness
A – Attentiveness
T – Truthfulness and Thankfulness
H – Helpful
E – Encouraging
R – Respectful
Closely related to attentiveness is truthfulness and thankfulness.
So how do I pass these things to my children? We do this with an attitude of truthfulness. I need to teach my children truth I and also need to teach them to be thankful in all things. This is all a part of being attentive to your children.
Look at Paul’s attitude.
Romans 1:8-12
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. 9 God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you 10 in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. 11 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— 12 that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.
Paul said, “I am thinking about you constantly.”
What should the attitude of a Father be to his children? He is thinking about them constantly. You do not have to tell a mother that. That comes more natural to a mother. But to a father, that is something we need to realize how God is thinking about us constantly, so that our minds are focused on him and the gift given to us through our children. So we are instructed to be attentive. We see Paul’s attitude of longing to impart some spiritual gift to others, to make them strong in faith, and to be encouraged by them also.
3 John 1:4
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
1 Corinthians 1:4-9
4 I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— 6 God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Look also at this attitude in Paul, expressing gratitude in his heart to God. This gratitude from God he received overflowed into the lives of others. This thankfulness overflows into sharing wonderful truth. It is also an attitude of truthfulness in your inner being that you want to impart to others. All this is from God and overflows into the lives of others, with all the more gratitude to God.
This attitude of attentiveness is “I am thinking about you, I am concerned about you, and I am praying for you”. This is the attitude of God toward us and should be our attitude to our children. This message is for you personally. Bob is not here. This is for you. So you listen to it. I want the Holy Spirit to convict me on these things. Conviction is God’s loving discipline, a renewing of our minds, a re-thinking and grabbing a hold of this truth, so such fruit is born through us.
Look about after their every need, their physical, mental and spiritual needs. We need to teach children scriptural truth. If you are not teaching truth, then we are not teaching them anything. If I am going to be responsible, to be attentive to a child’s needs, my job is to meet those needs through Christ Jesus. I am here to meet physical, emotional and spiritual needs. Emotional needs come from thinking. So renew their mind with the word of God so they become emotionally stable children. So too are men to water their wife with the word of truth. So when thinking is changed, emotions are changed also.
Ephesians 5:26
26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word
Teach children truth from the word of God. If they do not know the word of God, then no matter what degree they obtain, then you have not prepared them for life. Yes, an education is important, but let us put things in perspective. To get a degree all you have to do is study a book someone else wrote. You do not know if it is true or not. But if you memorize it and learn it, you can write it back down on a test and receive a grade, and if the grade is good enough, and you do this for enough courses, you have earned a degree.
You do not even care whether it is true or not. You just want to put information in that book into your head and transfer that information onto a blue book and you do that often enough you get a grade. But you can know people with all kinds of degrees but do not have enough sense to get out of the rain to keep from getting wet.
There is nothing wrong with education but let us see it in proper context.
The three most educated nations in the world in 1941 were Japan, Germany, and the United States, yet they are bombing the heck out of each other. Do not think education is the solution to the world. It is not. We live in this information age and people sitting around for hours and hours getting more information. I got news for you. We are not using the information we got. The only thing information that is going to change our lives is the information we receive direct from God. So unless we are teaching our children truth from the word of God we are not teaching them anything.
So as fathers we are responsible to teach truth from the word of God and to get children into a place where they can learn. It is our responsibility to teach children the word of God. So many wonderful parents are doing just that. It is not a pastor or church leader’s role to do this but a father’s role to do this.
Let us look more closely at truthfulness and thankfulness.
John 8:32
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
What did Jesus say truth will do (John 8:32)? The truth will set you free. Do you want your children to be in bondage? No, then set them free with truth. So where are you going to find that? Who is truth (John 14:6)? Jesus. What are you going to be teaching your children? So teach them about Jesus if you want to teach them truth. Teach them about the faithfulness and dependability of God.
Proverbs 12:22
The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.
How important is it for us to be truthful to one another? You cannot trust someone who lies to you. So we should try to be truthful. Are all of us truthful? Not always. That is why we need the Spirit, this encouragement. God is always truthful. Truthfulness is the best medicine.
When Bob raised his children. His son Bob used to disarm them. When his son was disobedient, Bob would ask, “Did you do this?” He said yes. How much better off he was just by being truthful.
John 8:32
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
From the standpoint of a father, never compromise truth. The thing that Bob recalls as a child, when he was growing up, was his dad, not being a born christian as we know today, that while he was religious, he was faithful and truthful. Thankfully, Bob’s dad did come to Christ before he died. When he said something you know he meant it.
How many of you have heard a parent say something like this, “If you do that again, I will stick your head in the Atlantic ocean”. Is that teaching our kids truth? No. You cannot carry that out. If you tell a child that you will send a child to your room and he disobeys but you fail to act in sending him to his room, then what have you taught your child? You taught him that you do not tell the truth. You are teaching your child that you are a liar. Then he too thinks he can lie. So do not say you are going to do something you know you cannot administer. If you say you are going to do something, then enforce it.
Say what you mean and mean what you say. Hang onto it, restrict it and enforce it. Why? If you don’t you are teaching your children that you are not truthful. Do you think your children will be more stable if they know you mean what you say? Yes, they are. Bob recalls his childhood. “When my dad told me to be home at 10, then I better be home at 10 and not 5 after”. Bob never drank in high school but his buddies did. His buddies would drive over there. He was invited by his buddies to go get beer. Bob recalls thinking, “If I get home late, mom and dad will kill me”. Bob did not want to go with sloppy teenage drunks, but he wanted to be popular. So he said, “I will go”. Then he thought about it, “I need an excuse”. His parents were his excuse. Thank God his parents were his excuse. So he said to his buddies, “I would love to go over there and play with you but my mom and dad”. Those children were killed that night in an automobile in a head on collision, involving drinking. As an example when you are a parent, let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no”. Let your kids know, “I am concerned enough about you and love you enough that when I set a standard for you I am going to enforce it. Do not ever expect what you do not inspect. Be truthful”.
This ties into the attitude of thankfulness.
1 Timothy 6:6-10
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Not only let God teach you but pass this on to your loved ones. This is not a purpose to feel guilty about it. With mistakes I made, I want to help others with it. I did this the other way. I can tell you the results of it. Use your past mistakes to help others.
Godliness with contentment is great gain.
How many of us are contented? It says it is of great gain to be contented. Are we contented? Are you contented with relationship with the Lord or are you seeking something else? That contentment has to come from “I am content with the Lord Jesus Christ and He is content with me”.
I cannot get God to love me more and He will not love me less. I know that nothing can separate me from the love of God. That is ingrained in me. I am content with that.
Romans 8:38-39
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The world say you cannot get ahead if you are content. If you get ahead, what do you get? A big head, quite big and puffed up. If that was the case, then everybody living in Hollywood would be contented. Contentment is of great gain to be able to say that wherever I am, I am contented. We have to learn to be contented wherever we are. Wherever you are, you are learning. We as fathers ought to be encouraging one another. We live in a competitive age, taking little children, recruiting them, and putting them in the big leagues.
(to be continued)
