Proverbs 29:3
Rejoicing in Our Fathers
Woodlawn Baptist Church
June 20, 2004
Introduction
I realize I don’t have much time this morning, but I came across a Father’s Thesaurus yesterday (from a sermon by Jeff Strite) and just had to share some of the excerpts from it. I want you ladies and children to pay close attention because this could really help you at home.
When a man says: "IT’S A GUY THING"
He means: "There is no rational thought pattern connected with this, and you have no chance at all of making it logical"
When your husband says "CAN I HELP WITH DINNER"
He means: "Why isn’t it already on the table?"
When he says "UH HUH, SURE HONEY,” or “YES, DEAR"
He means: Absolutely nothing – It’s a conditioned response.
When your father says ’’IT WOULD TAKE TOO LONG TO EXPLAIN"
He means: "I have no idea how it works"
When a man says "TAKE A BREAK, HONEY. YOU ARE WORKING TOO HARD’’
He means: "I can’t hear the game over the vacuum cleaner"
When dad says ’THAT’S INTERESTING.’
He means: "Are you still talking?"
When he says "YOU KNOW HOW BAD MY MEMORY IS."
He means: " I can remember the Oscar Myer Weiner song, the web-addresses of all my favorite sites & the size wrench that fits every nut and bolt on my truck – but I forgot your birthday"
When a man says ’OH, DON’T FUSS, I JUST CUT MYSELF. IT’S NO BIG DEAL"
He means: "I have actually severed a limb, but I will bleed to death before I admit I’m hurt"
When he says ’I CAN’T FIND IT.’’
He means: "It didn’t fall into my outstretched hand, so I’m completely clueless"
When your father says “I HEARD YOU.”
He means: "I haven’t the foggiest clue what you just said and I am hoping desperately that I can fake it well enough so that you’ll not yell at me."
When your husband says "YOU KNOW I COULD NEVER LOVE ANYONE ELSE"
He means: "I am used to the way you yell at me and realize it could be worse."
When a man says "YOU LOOK TERRIFIC!"
He means: "Oh please don’t try on one more outfit, I’m starving."
When your dad says "I’M NOT LOST. I KNOW EXACTLY WHERE WE ARE.’’
He means: : "No one will ever see us alive again."#
That sound like anyone’s husband or dad? I’m thankful today that we enjoy poking fun at dads. It is a mean world in which we live, one where the value of our fathers is often overlooked or forgotten, one in which fathers are too often portrayed as dimwitted dufusses that have to be constantly rescued by everyone else. I realize that more and more we are seeing a trend of irresponsible men who claim to be fathers, but today I want to celebrate Father’s Day by having you quickly consider four groups of fathers in whom we ought to daily rejoice.
Rejoice in your earthly fathers.
Proverbs 29:3 quite plainly says,
“Whoso loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father…”
In other words, anyone who can’t rejoice in his father is a fool. “Fools despise wisdom and instruction,” but the person who loves wisdom, who has the capacity to think and reason and see beyond himself ought to recognize what a great need he has to rejoice in his earthly father. In Exodus 20:12, right in the middle of the Ten Commandments, we are told to…
“Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”
You might say to me that your father was a worthless bum and that he never did anything for you to rejoice in him or honor him, but I can tell you this, you’re not pitting yourself against my words, but God’s words. You see, God’s command to honor your father isn’t optional or conditional. He didn’t say that if you have a good dad to honor him; God just said to honor him, period, and as I already said, only a self-centered fool can’t see something to rejoice in. My high school English teacher told us something one day I’ll never forget. He said that he had never met a person he couldn’t learn from, and I think you can apply that to what we’re talking about. You can find something to rejoice in, even if its in the negative. Your father was a drunk you say? Then rejoice that you got to see what a tragedy that was and now you don’t have to make his mistakes. Some of you may have to look really hard for something, but that’s the exception and not the norm.
By and large, most of us have fathers in whom we can easily rejoice. They loved us, spent time with us, taught us, provided for us, and much, much more. I remember as a boy how my dad was my superman. In high school I got into an argument with my basketball coach one day. He had hit me in the head with a basketball because he didn’t like something I had done, and I told him my dad would come up there and whip him, and I believed he could have (not that he would have!). But I want to tell you that the older I have grown and the more I spend time with my dad, the more I realize that he is still my superman. I find more and more reason to rejoice in him.
Think about your fathers - about who they were, what they did, how they shaped you into the people you are today, and rejoice in them. Thank God for them. Celebrate their lives, the heritage and the legacy they have passed on to you.
Rejoice in your national fathers.
When I talk about national fathers, maybe great men like George Washington or Abraham Lincoln come to mind. There are even others. That’s exactly what I’m talking about. We have a rich national heritage, and today we enjoy so many freedoms and a nation that is possible because of what these men did and gave. I think of Brother Hoover’s testimony today. Here is a man who shaped our nation, and there are so many more like him who have made it possible for us to be here today. Not all of them had experiences so life-threatening as his, but because of what they did to allow us to be here today we can look back, remember and celebrate.
In Joshua 4, there is a good example of how the Lord instructed Joshua to aid in doing this. As the nation crossed the Jordan River into the land of Canaan, Joshua was instructed to build a monument of great stones, so that in years to come the children and grandchildren of these men and women would look at that monument and ask why it was there. This would allow the people an opportunity to tell future Jews what their national fathers had done for them, and would also reinforce an oral tradition of rich stories that would instill pride in God and country.
That’s missing in our nation today. Our national history is largely ignored or dismissed as boring. Educators are re-writing history so that certain issues are sidestepped or forgotten. Gone are the days of national patriotism and national pride as we have so instilled the ideas of global everything and the all-inclusiveness of any and everything that comes along. The old standards are not sung, pledges are being battled over and love of America is treated with disdain largely because we have not taken the time to rejoice in the sacrifices of our national fathers, nor have we taught our children to do so.
We ought to rejoice in our national fathers for many reasons: they were largely men of faith, men of courage and sacrifice, men who were not necessarily moral giants - think about Jefferson - he had his faults, they were not always men of high moral integrity, but they gave their lives to shape a country that God has blessed, and today that has been replaced by men who take from their country so that now we are one that is being turned over to our lusts, and it will ultimately lead to our demise.
Rejoice in your spiritual fathers.
In 1 Timothy 1:2, the apostle Paul wrote,
“Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.”
In 2 Timothy 1:2, he wrote again,
“To Timothy, my dearly beloved son…”
When Timothy first began to follow the apostle Paul, he was young man. He had been raised a God-fearing young man by his mother and grandmother, but it was the apostle Paul who took Timothy under his wing and really discipled him. It was Paul that taught and trained Timothy so that by the time he had spent three years building the church at Ephesus, he handed the reigns over to Timothy with full confidence in his ability to pastor the church.
Can you think of that person or people in your life that you consider to be your spiritual father? It may be someone who is dead and gone now, or it may be someone who is very much alive. Either way, rejoice that God allowed you to be a part of their lives, and that they took the time to be that spiritual father that you needed to bring you to this place today. That person may have led you to Christ. Perhaps they helped you learn key doctrines. It may be that they were just there for you in times of need and you learned, not from what they said or taught, but from their godly example and from their obvious love of God.
Rejoice in your heavenly Father.
In Philippians 4:4, we are told simply,
“Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.”
Time won’t permit me to talk about all the reasons we ought to rejoice in the Lord, our heavenly Father, but I want to give you a few.
You ought to rejoice in Him because He chose you when you belonged to another. You were a child of the devil, a sinner condemned and unclean, destined for hell because of your sin. You were by nature a child of wrath the Bible says, and rightly so. But God looked ahead through the ages, saw you and chose to sacrifice His only begotten Son on the cross of Calvary so that you might have life. He did something that He didn’t have to do. He adopted you into His family, wrote your name in His family genealogy, in His book, sealed you with His Spirit and has promised to come and pick you up one day.
You can rejoice because of His forgiveness; His grace; His mercy; His love; His patience; His comfort; His purpose for your life, and so much more. He protects you. He provides for you. He is present in every moment of your life, and even when you don’t want Him around, God never leaves you or forsakes you. He saves you to the uttermost. What can separate you from the love of God? Not a thing!
Conclusion
Now I realize that it may not be so easy for some of you to rejoice in your earthly fathers. You may not often think about your national fathers or even your spiritual fathers, but there ought never be a day of your life when your thoughts aren’t consumed with the goodness and the greatness and the glory of God. “Rejoice in the Lord always,” because there’s always something about Him that compels you to rejoice.
Today though you may not know the Lord as your Savior. You have earthly and national fathers, and it is possible that you could even have a spiritual father, but if you have never repented of your sin and trusted in Christ to save you, then today you need to make Him your heavenly Father.
