Are Fathers Necessary?

Brought in time for Father's Day, the secular humanist-owned Atlantic Monthly. It's a magazine. Ask the heterophobic, that means hatred of heterosexuals, they ask this hateful question in an article titled, Are Fathers Necessary? So we ask you today on the eve of Father's Day, Are Fathers Necessary? Historically, Western society was underpinned by Christian assumptions and values. One of the most important assumptions was that every human being is made in the image of God, and we are here as a result of divine creation.

The God-ordained family structure was deeply respected and honored, but then somewhere around 175 years ago, it came under attack mightily. So now, let's notice Genesis 2 and get our foundation and know that we know that God is the author of marriage and family. In Genesis chapter 2, in chapter 1, verses 26 and 27, we see that God created man in his image and in his likeness, and told them to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.

And for the process of reproduction to take place, you have to have male and female with males supplying sperm and the female providing the ovum, and so male and female necessary. God created Adam from the dust of the ground, as we know. Breathed into his nostrils, the breath of life.

Genesis 2.7, man became a living soul. And then the animals were brought before Adam to name, and he named them. But as we see in Genesis 2, that there was no help-meet or no one to serve alongside Adam. And so, in verse 18, Genesis 2.18, and the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a help-meet for him, and out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, every fowl of the air brought them to Adam to name. And verse 20, Adam gave names to all of these, But for Adam there was not found and help-meet for him.

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. Here's the first surgery performed in anesthesia. He took one of the ribs and closed up the flesh. So suture taking place, probably supernatural. No suture, just you're healed and probably didn't leave a scar. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man, he made woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman. She was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. So there's no question that God is the author of male and female.

He is our Creator, He is our Father, the author of male and female. He is the author of marriage, He is the author of family. He told them to be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth. But for the past 75 or 100 years, Christian values have been under constant assault by evolutionists, feminists, homosexuals, all under the guise of equal rights and freedom.

But in reality, all of this is just a mask for Satanism, a cover-up for it. Specifically, women have been conditioned to see the traditional feminine role as wife and mother, as oppressive, they've been conditioned to usurp the role of men. And the conditioning takes place today throughout all of our various institutions, especially in the arena of public education. This has been the occult objective all along, that is to subvert the family, and especially to misuse women in a way that will cause the family structure to fall. Remember in the Garden of Eden that Satan went after Eve in the garden.

Now we ask the question, why does Satan hate fatherhood so much? Why does Satan hate fatherhood so much? The answer is, the plan and purpose of God hinges on the understanding of who is God, what is God, and what is His purpose. And corollary to that is who is man, what is man, and what is His purpose. So God is our Father, He is our Creator. He is the one that brought us to life. The God-ordained family structure parallels what God is doing in the spiritual sense, and bringing sons and daughters to glory in His spiritual family.

And God, as our Father and Creator, wants to share His being, who He is and what He is, with humankind. Remember, God is love, outgoing concern. Love that is not shared is very difficult to call it love, and God wants to share what He is, His very divine nature with humankind. The so-called sociologists, psychologists, intellectuals, journalists, are doing everything they can to try to destroy fatherhood, and they say anything they want to say against fathers and fatherhood, masculinity.

But don't you dare speak a word against the homosexuals, against the feminists, because if you do, you may be farmed out to some place you've never heard of. And a lot of people have their political careers overnight, because they've said something against the feminists or against the homosexuals. So-called scientific studies are being conducted to try to prove that children reared by homosexuals are better adjusted, do better academically, that they are happier.

And these propaganda lies are published in leading magazines, and it underscores the very fact that this is part of Satan's agenda. Satan is the god of this present evil age. And no matter how hard they try to subvert fatherhood, even children who were born from anonymous sperm donors are desperately looking for their fathers. They want to know who my dad is.

Who is my dad? And what is he like? I would like to meet him. So apparently the mothers' lesbian partners do not fulfill the father role in their lives. There's something missing. Actually, research shows that children have to be reared, if they have to be reared in a single home, in a single parent home, they are better off with their father than with their mother. Now, I know that is a very debatable kind of statement there, but a lot of the research says if you only have one parent, be better off having the father than the mother.

And I know that probably half of you may say, Oh, well, I don't agree with that. I think it's the mother. Or somebody say, Well, I do agree with that. It's a father. But we notice historically that even psychologists and sociologists agree that father is supposed to be the chief transmitter of culturally-based conceptions of masculinity and femininity. Those conceptions are at the present time under fiery attack, and the father is directly on the firing line. He is the object. So, hence, we have an article like this one in Atlantic Monthly.

Are fathers necessary? Are fathers necessary in today's world? It goes on to say, if father is not present in the first five years of life, then the child may have several hurdles before him. Boys without fathers have been reported to lack self-esteem initiative. They are oftentimes over-aggressive, more impulsive, and generally less able to follow the rules of society.

The conclusion has been that if a boy hasn't learned how to get along with a father, he may always find it difficult to cope with male figures and authority, like a school principal, the police, or other authority figures. The destruction of gender and the family is part of the process of changing Christian assumptions to satanic ones. Generally, Christian assumptions are based on what is natural, what is healthy. Satanic assumptions are based on defying the natural and that which is common sense morality.

The secularists, the humanistic secularists, want to rob 98% of the population of the meaning and independence that's derived from their family role. In other words, of course, you read various studies, and some studies say that up to 5% of the population is homosexual.

Most of the studies that I read say that about 2%. Satanism wants to prove that man is merely an animal, can be slaughtered without compunction, hence you have the abortion and the so-called various means of population control. But abortion is among the principal ones, and it's what is it parades under? It parades under the guise of family planning. So the media is constantly attacking institutions like family and degrading the rest of us using sex and obscenity in the process.

We have lobbyists out there who are lobbying the pedophilia, child, the abuse of children in the sexual sense, be made legal. Or, to put it another way, that sexual relations with children be made legal.

You know what has happened with the Catholic Church and what they have done, the priests there over the years, in violating all of these young males, and apparently there have been thousands who have been violated.

So when we see this bit of an overview of what's going on and where society is headed, I'd like to ask us the question, What do you think of when you think of your earthly father, and then what do you think of when you think of your heavenly father? What thoughts run through your mind in each case? What do you think of when you think of your earthly father?

Do you think of him in very positive terms, loving, caring, very concerned for us, give his life for us? Or, what do you think of when you think of your heavenly father? What do you think of when you think of your husband? Because being a husband and a father sort of go hand in glove.

In biblical Hebrew and Greek, the term father is used in various senses. It's used as a begetter, one who engenders life, used as a progenitor of an individual, a family, a tribe, a nation, used in the sense of being a protector, the head of the household. It's used as a term of respect. It's very interesting. In fact, I was talking with someone here recently about this. That the Hebrew word for father is av. It's spelled in English av. And the first mimetic sounds that an infant makes is av. We call it ku'ing. It starts saying avavavavav. And that is the Hebrew word for father. The simplest sounds of an infant's lip. It's first of all avavav, and then da da da, and then from that may come ma ma ma. And I know when our children were growing up, and especially our daughters, after they had children, that they were somewhat advocated well, they learned to say daddy before they did mama. Now listen to this. The University of California psychologist Nicholas Christenfield found that infants tend to resemble their fathers at birth. But don't panic. It usually changes. In a test he conducted, participants picked the correct mom of an infant from photographs 30% of the time. But they picked the correct photographs of their fathers 50% of the time. Now one hypothesis is that nature encourages paternal investment by having the infant to resemble the father. Of course, that's evolutionary and somewhat Freudian kind of thinking. But it's interesting to note that according to this study, babies tend to resemble their fathers, but eventually the father-infant resemblance is usually outgrown. God is love. We all know that. And from God's love flows all good things. Love is the most powerful motivating force in the universe. And as a doer, God is first and foremost a creator. He created the physical universe. He created the spiritual. We know that all things were created through Christ, according to Colossians 1. But as a creator, He is also our Father. Now let's notice Isaiah 63. Isaiah 63 in verse 16. Isaiah 63 in verse 16.

What is God? We know that God is spirit. John 4.24, those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And here we see in Isaiah 63 in verse 16. Doubtless you are our Father. Though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not, and I'm just speaking more in spiritual terms of those who have received God's Spirit of the Gettle. You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer. Your name is from everlasting. And then in the next chapter in verse 8, Isaiah 64.8. But now, O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay. You are our potter. And we are the work of Your hand. And we know after we receive God's Spirit that we are to become like the potter's clay on the emery wheel of the potter, be molded and shaped after His way. Also, let's notice Ephesians 3, 14, 15. Ephesians 3, 14, 15. And keep playing in the back of your mind, perhaps, while our Father is necessary, Atlantic Monthly wants to know. Written by a young lady, of course, she probably went to Yale or Harvard, one of the Ivy League schools, and this great, respected publication, Atlantic Monthly, publishes and asks this question.

Ephesians 3, 14, 15. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Now, note this and note it well. In the physical sense, we are the children of God through creation.

The whole human family can say in that sense that God is their Father. Through the act of creation, God created Adam and Eve. And then, through the process of reproduction, the natural laws of reproduction, life begets life, kind begets kind.

Two of the greatest laws of biology are simply that. Life begets life and kind begets kind. So God created humankind. But then, to be our spiritual Father, listen to this.

Now, to be our spiritual Father, we have to be begotten, have to receive His Spirit. Then, we can become spiritual children of God. So we are the children of God in the spiritual sense through a begettle. And there's a world of difference between being a son of God by this physical creation.

Adam and Eve could be called children of God as a result of physical creation, but they rejected the tree of life. They sinned, and humankind was cut off from the tree of life as a whole until the time that Jesus Christ came and paid the penalty for sin. And through our repentance, faith, and the sacrifice of Christ, being baptized, we can receive the Holy Spirit and become the spiritual children of God.

In fact, the world of difference is a great gulf that exists between our physiochemical existence and eternal life.

It is noted in the sermonette, in the model of prayer, in Matthew 6.9, we pray, Our Father, who art in heaven. There is no deeper, closer, respectful kind of relationship that can exist than Father, Son, or Father, Daughter.

In many ways, it seems that sometimes the relationship between fathers and daughters is sometimes closer than fathers and sons. I know that daughters are very quick to defend their fathers. That's been the case with me. I know that I have two daughters, I have three granddaughters, and I have a wife. So I've had to contend with six women for quite a long time. But they defend me fiercely. They are my greatest defenders. And probably that's the way with so many of you fathers out there. I mean, you just don't say anything bad about my daddy, because you don't have not just him to fight, but you've got me also.

In Romans 8, verse 15, For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. The Greek word there is huio-thesia, and it means sonship. It is not just adoption, it is not just placing as a son. We've gone over and over this, and I wrote the paper, The Nature of God, that's on the website, the study paper, The Nature of God. Even some of our ministers have argued that it's adoption placing as a son. Let me tell you why it's not just adoption. Now, adoption, you can have the same rights and privileges that a birth child can have, or does have. But when the person is actually engendered by you and receives your DNA, that is from you, and it's not an adopted son. It's literally from your DNA. Now, to use the analogy, if you want to use the physical analogy, the physical DNA, that God gives us of His very divine nature, it says in 1 Peter, partakers of His divine nature, that His very spiritual essence comes into you, and that by the same Spirit that He raised Jesus from the dead, He will also quicken our mortal bodies. So, we are literally sons of God. Verse 14, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. We've not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but we have received the Spirit of sonship. Whereby we cry, Abba, Father, the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. So, what I said earlier, now this has to do with the spiritual children of God, because we have received His very essence. You may have a person walking the streets downtown in Houston right now. They could be called the Son of God by creation, but they have not received the Spirit of sonship. Whereby we cry, Abba, Father. And this term, Abba, Father, is one of the most intimate kinds of expressions that you can possibly come forth out of a human's lips. We cry, Abba, Father. We pray, our Father, who art in heaven. And if children then heirs, if children, God is spirit, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. Now, you look back up there in verse 11, which I sort of paraphrased earlier. And if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, that divine essence that comes from God. Adam and Eve did not have that by creation. The tree of life was set out there, but they didn't partake of it. In fact, they were driven out of the garden.

But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also make alive quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you. Thus, we can come down to verse 17. And if children then heirs, heirs of God, inheriting what He is on that spiritual plane, and join heirs with Christ, because we've just read that by the same Spirit He raised Jesus from the dead, He will also quicken our mortal bodies.

God and Christ are unconditional givers of themselves. Perhaps all of us can quote John 3.16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.

And this opens this door to being the spiritual children of God.

God and Christ are unconditional givers. They first love us. And in the human family, if a child is really going to learn love and proper respect, then the parents need to love that child.

They need to be taught how to love. Notice Romans 5-6.

For when we were yet without strength, that is, especially spiritually, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.

Or scarcely, if a righteous man will one die, yet for adventure for a good man, some would even dare to die. So in the human realm, we generally don't give our lives for just any old body. But, contrary to what it's like in the spiritual realm, God commended His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So He made the first step. He ordained and planned this great plan of salvation. Now go, please, to 1 John 4, 1 John 4. Twice in 1 John it said that God is love. We'll notice in 1 John 4.8 it says God is love. We'll notice in verse 9, 10, and 11, 1 John 4, verse 9.

He went in our stead for our sins. Why did He have to go in our stead? The wages of sin is death, and somebody had to pay the penalty. Someone had to die in Christ, was counted worthy, and died for the sins of the world. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

In other words, before they loved us, God made the first step toward us. And what He's saying here, we ought to love in the same manner that God loved us. Children learn love from their parents. A child that is not loved by their parents will have a difficult time adjusting to making relationships, proper sexual identity, and proper human relationships in this world, just getting along.

So once again, when you think of your heavenly Father or physical Father, what do you think of? Do you view Him negatively with a sense of guilt, that is your heavenly Father, because you feel you never measure up? So you might think that God is never pleased with you, and thus you don't really feel close to God.

You know, Christ was inspired in the Bible, in James, to say, Draw an eye to me, and I'll draw an eye unto you. And God doesn't want us on a perpetual guilt trip. He has clearly instructed us how we can always be reconciled with Him. Let's notice this great promise about forgiveness in Psalm 103, verse 8. In like manner, human fathers need to be willing to forgive, to forget, and to go on. As I mentioned later in the sermon as well, that all of us, in one way or another, are prodigal sons and godside, because we've all sinned, and we've all gone our own way.

In Psalm 103, verse 8, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy. That's the way our heavenly Father is. He's not an angry God who's out there, you know, it says in another place in the Psalms that we would receive justice who would be able to stand. So God is not, Oh, He's sinned there, I'm going to zod Him right there. Or I just wait till He turns the next corner, and I get Him over there. He will not always chide, neither will He keep His anger forever.

He has not dealt with us after our sins. He has not dealt with us after our sins. Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far as He removed our transgressions from us. That's like infinity. Who knows how far the east is from the west?

Like as a father pities His children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him, for He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust, as for man his days are as grass, as a flower of the field, so He flourishes. For the wind passes over and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more.

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him in His righteousness unto children, to such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them.

So we have a kind, a loving, a generous heavenly Father who forgives us our sins, who removes our sins as far as the east is from the west, who is not up there just marking iniquities and saying, okay, He's sitting there, I've got to get Him here. And sitting there, I've got to get Him there. And sometimes we view our heavenly Father in a way that perhaps we shouldn't. Sadly, to some degree, some people do view their heavenly Father as they viewed their earthly Father, physical Father.

You know that your physical Father begat you to physical life, but did you discern? Did you learn from Him? Did you know that He loved you, had your best interests at heart, and taught you how to live your life? We know that we have this instruction book before us that gives us testimony as to God as our Father. God is bringing many sons and daughters to glory in His family.

So Fatherhood has to do with beginning and gendering life, loving, nurturing, teaching, and disciplining, and rewarding. Because there is a great reward. And one of the greatest pleasures of God is, it says in Luke, it is His good pleasure. Fear not, little flock, it says, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

It's like we take pleasure in giving gifts to our children and seeing their eyes light up. How much more God will take pleasure in giving us the kingdom? So God ordained marriage and family so we could see in a concrete way what He's doing on the spiritual plane. The Father's position is absolutely essential to all things spiritual. Let me say that again. The Father's position, His role is absolutely essential to all things spiritual.

All things spiritual begin with the Father. The Father is the source of the Holy Spirit. John 1526 says, I will send you the Comforter, and the Comforter is identified as the Holy Spirit in John 1426. I will send you the Comforter which proceeds from the Father.

Of course, Jesus Christ is spirit and He plays a role in it. John 644 that we can all quote. God draws us through His Spirit. His Spirit opens our minds. I would like for us to turn now to James 1.17. That the Father bestows every good and perfect gift.

James 1 and verse 17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no wearableness neither shadow or turning. God's character of who He is and what He is is the same today, yesterday, and forever. Of whom of His own will beget He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creation.

So the Father, the source of the Holy Spirit, He draws us through His Spirit. He bestows every good and perfect gift. He begets us through His Spirit. Is Fatherhood essential? Is Fatherhood necessary? Not only is Fatherhood necessary in the physical realm, it's also obviously necessary in the spiritual realm. And as we said, God loved us so much, He gave His only begotten Son. God intended and commanded that fathers be the head of the wife and children.

God commanded and intended that fathers be highly respected. Let's go now to 1 Corinthians 11. I grew up with yes sir and no sir and yes ma'am and no ma'am. And I pretty much say that much of the time today. You didn't call a person who is older than you are, especially. That was sort of the rule.

You don't call anybody that's older than you are by their first name. When you mail a letter, you say Mr. and Mrs. or whatever the proper title is, you show respect, decorum, you show graciousness, you show that you understand what human life is all about and what God has ordained in the human realm.

In 1 Corinthians 11, we see listed the hierarchical structure of God's government, per se. Be you followers of me, even as I also am of Christ, Paul writes. Now praise your brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you, but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ. Now, this is talking about in authority that Christ is over man, and the head of the woman is the man, that man is to be the head of the household, and the head of Christ is God.

So if you listed you have God who is over Christ, Christ who is over man, man who is over woman, and that's God's ordained structure for the family. And in fact, that's his ordained structure. And of course, there are various offices in the church, but we're not talking about that right now. We're talking about the physical family. So God intended and commanded that fathers be the head of the wife and children, and that fathers be respected.

But since World War II especially, and this was sort of the breaking point, World War II, with the advent of television, fathers have been characterized as bumbling idiots. To some degree, it started with Dagwood and Blondie. Is it an accident that his name is Dagwood Bumstead, with emphasis on bum? Fathers are portrayed as somewhat mentally deranged, not able to manage his own affairs, let alone take care of a wife and a family. He's oftentimes viewed as someone to be pitied, to be tolerated.

And they're really saying, if it were not for fathers, the world would be a pretty good place to live in. So in about 75 years or less, we've gone from deep respect for fathers to a national publication writing article titled, Our Fathers Necessary. You're led to believe that he's out of touch with the modern world. He hasn't been enlightened. He just doesn't seem to understand that the world belongs to women and children. Fathers are viewed by the so-called progressives as the last stick in the mud, the last thing to overcome so the world can really move into a new age of enlightenment and fun in the sun.

Let's get them daddies and fathers out of the way. One dad won a door prize drawing, and he called his five children together. He asked them to help him decide which one of them should get the prize. Who is the most obedient he has? Who never talks back to his mother? Who does everything she says? The five children entered in unison. You do, dad. You get the prize. One wise senior adult who was celebrating his 50th anniversary was asked the secret of their long marriage. He replied, I learned a long time ago you can be right or you can be happy.

David Chansey writes, most dads understand the best gift they can give their children is to love their mother, but some are slow to catch on. A husband and a wife were attending a marriage seminar dealing with communication, and the instructor asked the husbands, what is your wife's favorite flower? The well-meaning husband who wanted to show that he was really tuned into her needs leaned over to his wife, gently stroked her on the arm and said, it's Pillsbury, isn't it? So many husbands and wives are, I'm sorry, so many husbands and fathers are really sort of out of it.

And to some degree, it's their own fault because they sort of by default leave many of the responsibilities that should be theirs up to the mother and to the wife. So we see a world in which people are running to and fro, wringing their hands, wondering what to do about the behavior that now terrifies the world.

Much of the confusion, the unrest, the fear, and the terror stem from the fact that fathers are not fulfilling their roles. Today's terrorists are not just found among the Taliban or Al-Qaeda or Hezbollah or Hamas. They are family members. Almost every week we hear, even here in the Houston area, much less nationwide, we hear of a father or mother killing their very young children. I doubt that most of these people had ever been properly fathered themselves. Some years ago, Dr. Albert Siegel, professor of psychology at Stanford University, wrote in the Stanford Observer the following. When it comes to rearing children, every society is only 20 years away from barbarianism.

He went on to say, 20 years is all we have to accomplish the task of civilizing the infants who are born into our midst each year.

These little ones know nothing of our language, our culture, our religion, our values, our customs, or our interpersonal relations. The infant is totally ignorant about communism, fascism, democracy, civil liberties, the rights of the minorities contrasted with the prerogatives of the majority. They are ignorant of respect, decency, decency, customs, conventions, and manners. The barbarian must be trained if civilization is to survive. Today, our news is dominated by our barbarianism. We have lost it. Are we going to survive?

One comedian noted recently that most crimes of violence occur in the family, so he said, don't lock your doors, you may need to escape in a hurry. The world desperately needs men who will exercise true fatherhood and manhood.

As we have seen through the example of God in Christ, a physical father's leadership role is first and foremost spiritual. Yes, he used to put bread on the table, but in addition to that, he used to be a spiritual leader. To be a spiritual leader, you need to be a great communicator. Our spiritual father, God, is concerned about communicating with us, so concerned that he sent the Word, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Let's note what this Word did. First of all, John 1.

In John 1, verse 17, For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

So one of the things that the Son came to do was to reveal the Father, to communicate what the Father is like. You know, Christ told one of the disciples in John 14, If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And in John 15, Christ tells them that He has told them what the Father has told Him. So Christ, the Word of God, was made flesh and He communicated to us all things that the Father had given to Him.

This is John 15. Henceforth, I call you not servants, for the servant knows not what the Lord does, but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you. Jesus Christ is a great communicator. My Father is a great communicator. And of course, we need to be great communicators as fathers. Communication is a sacrifice.

Let's notice Hebrews chapter 13, back about a year ago. In fact, I was looking at church reports and sermon titles yesterday. It was just about a year ago that I was giving this series on marriage and family and family communication. This is one of the places that we turned at that time. Hebrews 13 verse 15. By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name, but to do good and communicate, forget not. For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased.

So communication is a sacrifice. And oftentimes, Dad will come home at the end of the day. He is so tired. Maybe his job was not all that physically demanding. Maybe he was sitting behind a desk like I am here this afternoon. But he was expending great mental and psychic energy. Sometimes those kind of desk jobs are more stressful than jobs where you're out doing physical manual labor. So be willing to communicate and do the things you need to do.

It is a sacrifice. So physical fathers need to communicate their love, care, and concern. I have read from Psalm 103 some of the care and concern that God has as our Father for us. Not dealing with us according to our iniquities, removing our sins as far as the East is from the West. So physical fathers need to communicate their care and concern for their family members, their wife, their children. And they need to love them in word and deed.

Research shows that the two principal ways—I was a bit amazed, and of course, any research in today's world is somewhat debatable and subjective— but according to this, the two major ways that you show love to another person is, one, by words, to say, I love you. Three words. I love you. And then secondly, through physical touching, hugging, touching, pat on the back, that kind of interaction.

But another way, and perhaps even greater than those two ways, whereby love is perceived as through the amount of time that is spent with a person. Do you spend time? Time is a substance of life. That's what it's made of. We say, well, he was 91 years old. It's a measure of time, and he died. So in a sense, we say time is a substance of life in the human domain.

Of course, God is timeless and eternal and all of that, but we humans operate in a finite world. One corporate executive who said his five-year-old daughter was the most important part of his life realized that he usually went to work before she got up in the morning and often returned home after she was in bed at night. So to spend time with her, he took her to the office with him one Sunday, one Saturday. And after looking around his office, she asked, Daddy, is this where you live? You know, Cat Stevens' haunting song, Cat's in the Cradle, aptly described to a large degree the way life is lived today.

A child arrived just the other day, came to the world in the usual way, with the planes to catch and bills to pay. He learned to walk while I was away. He was talking before I knew it. And as he grew, he said, I'm going to be like you, Dad. You know, I'm going to be like you. The Cat's in the Cradle and the Silver Spoon, Little Boy Blue and the Man on the Moon. When you're coming home, son, I don't know when we'll get together then, Dad. You know, we'll have a good time then. Well, my son turned 10 just the other day.

He said, thanks for the ball. Now come, let's play. Could you teach me how to throw? I said, not today. I got a lot to do. He said, that's okay. Yeah. He walked away and he smiled. He was such a doll. I'm going to be like him. Yeah, you know, I'm going to be like him. And it goes on and on of the various phases and stages of life. And it comes to the end. I've long since retired. My son's moved away.

I called him up just the other day. I like to see you if you don't mind. He said, I'd love to, Dad, but I can't find the time. You see, my new job's a hassle and the kids have the flu. But it's sure nice talking to you, Dad. It's sure been nice talking to you. And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me. He'd grown up just like me. My boy was just like me. The cat's in the cradle in the silver spoon. Little boy blue and the man on the moon. When you're coming home, son, I don't know when.

We'll get together then. You know, we'll have a good time then. The cat's in the cradle in the silver spoon. Little boy blue and the man on the moon. When you're coming home, son, I don't know when. We'll get together then. You know, we'll have a good time then. So many of us live our lives with one of these days. Now, one of these days, I'm going to do second such. Not going to be this way. One of these days. But one of these days never comes.

Anis Ninn, A-N-A-I-S, Anis Ninn once wrote, quote, Love never dies of a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds. It dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings. And I would add also that it dies because of neglect and taking others for granted.

When will fathers ever learn that the most masculine activity in this life is to become spiritually mature like Jesus Christ? I believe the most spiritually mature statement ever uttered was from the stake when Jesus said, Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. I would say perhaps the second greatest masculine activity is being a husband and a father as God gave commandment. So many people in this world have never really been fathered. Many of the behaviors that we see extend in our society today stem from youngsters who are in search of a father. The sad reality is that they're showing their contempt for never having been properly fathered.

That's not always the case. Some can have ideal parents. Perfect parenthood doesn't necessarily equal perfect children, as we know in the case of Adam and Eve. But the probability is greater if you have the right kind of parenting that you will also have productive children.

Or the Bible says, train them up in the way that they should go. When they're old, they will not depart from it. If that's not important, why would it be in the Bible? Those who are caught up in such behavior, that we read about, we hear about on the news every night, are really opposing themselves.

They are their own worst enemy. They can't even recognize that they are their own worst enemy. It's not society. It's not their parents. Really, it's them. But they really should have been loved and cared for and taught responsibility, and had rules established, and the penalty for breaking those rules, established from their parents. Children learn love from their parents. Christ loved us before we loved Him. We've already read that. Fathers tend to be action-oriented and short on words.

But we need more words. Let's go once again to Ephesians 6, when they're once today. Let's go again and bring out a couple more points from there in Ephesians 6. I'm convinced that one of the reasons for so much teen crime and suicide is because children have not been properly nurtured. The fathers should lead in discipline, establish rules, and the penalty for breaking the rules. But sadly, in today's world, discipline is so very often left to the mothers, the wives and mothers. In Ephesians 6, verse 1. Before we read that, God sets the discipline for us, and He chases every son He loves.

It brings us out very clearly in Hebrews 12, verses 6 through 10. In the millennium, it says, your teachers will not be hidden from you, but you'll hear a voice saying, This is the way, walk you in it.

So fathers should be charting the way and making sure that the children walk in it. And it's sad to say, as we've already mentioned, that in today's world, so much of the discipline is left to the wives and mothers. Men, if you're guilty of that, please repent of it.

Please change. Ephesians 6, verse 1. Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. It's a right thing to do. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth. This is the verse I more want to emphasize, and you fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. God the Father doesn't provoke us to wrath.

It says, James, let no man say that when he is tempted, that he is tempted of God. You fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And we want to focus on this word, nurture. This word nurture in the Greek is pahidia. Pahidia means the whole training and education of children, which relates to the cultivation of mind and morals, and employs for this purpose commands and admonitions, reproof and punishment.

It also includes the training and care of the body. So it is educating the whole person. It is education setting the discipline on the one hand, the instruction, and then if the instruction, the discipline, is not met, then administering the punishment. So the fathers need to lead in spiritual instruction and spiritual leadership.

We all know that thoughts or ideas are the precursors of action. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. So our Heavenly Father, He has set out a plan. He's not capricious. We really have a plan for our family. What steps do we take? Do we have somewhat of a schedule of what we're going to do?

God our Father has a plan for us, a great plan of salvation. It stems from His love for God to love the world. It is administered in love. It is communicated in love. And then when God does have to discipline, He disciplines in love, that we might learn the lessons. And it says in the Bible, if you are without chastisement, then are you illegitimate and not sons? And so one of the ways that you show your children that you love them is by setting the rules, the guidelines, and the discipline, and then administering that discipline.

On the local television channels in some cities, I know they did this up in Tyler, someone from the community comes on and says, it's 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are? See, God always knows where we are. He doesn't lose track of us. The hairs on our head are numbered.

Not even a sparrow falls to the ground, unless he's aware of it. His thoughts are continually, they're ever toward us, as it says in the Psalms. And God is there, and He's ready and willing at all times. He's not afraid to express His emotions. Jesus went to the gravesite there of Lazarus, and He says, Jesus wept. Of course, there's controversy over, was He weeping because He's dead, or weeping because of their lack of faith, that He couldn't really raise Him from the dead.

But nonetheless, one of the shortest and most powerful verses in the Bible is, Jesus wept. The Psalms are filled with words of comfort and exhortation, encouragement for us. So God has spoken the great words of life, the great words of encouragement to us, and then we need to speak them to our children.

So we need to ask ourselves, are we leading our family spiritually? We all know the Scripture, 1 Timothy 5, 8, that says, If a man provide not for those of his own household, he's worth it in infidel and has denied the faith.

Do we apply that just in physical terms, or do we also apply it in spiritual terms? I believe that we should apply it in spiritual terms. The Bible says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So putting bread on the table. Is putting bread on the table just cornbread? None of you know what cornbread is, but I do. It's a lot more than there. It's also putting the spiritual bread on the table. As we found out in our story about Joseph, God is looking out for our best interests years in advance, and we as fathers should be looking out the best interests of our families years in advance.

God is our loving Father. He is our Creator. He is our Father. And as we mentioned earlier, all of us, like prodigal sons at one time or the other, have gone astray. Now we are asked to come back to the shepherd and bishop of our souls, as Peter calls it, and to return to that shepherd, and to be led by him, to be nurtured by him, to be fathered by the great spiritual Father.

And in like manner, we in the human realm need to do the same thing in our human family. So what is your answer to Atlantic Monthly's article, Are Fathers Necessary? If we didn't have fathers, we wouldn't have life.

And if we didn't have fathers, we wouldn't be here. So tomorrow, let's honor our fathers. And those of us who are fathers, let's take these words today as exhortation, as admonition, as encouragement to go out and to do in the physical realm with our families what God is doing in the spiritual realm, and let's put more spiritual bread on the table for our families than we do just the physical bread. So I hope all of you have a great Father's Day, and all of you enjoy your time together tomorrow.