Influence of the Father

A few people asked me what this special occasion was to wear a flower. My wife got this for me because she said, tomorrow is Father's Day. When we left to go to Florida, our Gardenia bush did not have a single Gardenia on it. We came back, it was in full bloom. So we have really enjoyed not only looking at that bush, but the aroma coming from it. We live in an age where words and language are being redefined. A word might mean something to you, but in society it has a totally different meaning. I'd like to read part of an article by Thomas Sowell that appeared on May 8th. Words that replace thoughts. He went off in a little direction with this, but talking about some of the words today that are used in society that stop people from thinking. It says, if there is ever a contest for words that substitute for thought, diversity should be recognized as the undisputed world champion.

You don't need a speck of evidence or a single step of logic when you rhapsodize about the supposed benefits of diversity. The very idea of testing this wonderful, magical word against something as ugly as reality seems almost sorted.

To ask whether institutions that promote diversity 24-7 end up better or worse in their relationship between the races and institutions that pay no attention to it at all is only to get yourself regarded as a bad person.

To cite hard evidence that places obsessed with diversity have worse relationships is no risk to get yourself labeled an incorrigible racist. Free thinking is not free anymore. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that government has a compelling interest in promoting diversity. Apparently more compelling than the 14th Amendment, requirement of equal protection under the law for everybody. How does—and he goes on talking about diversity and gives some other examples. I'll skip over that.

Another candidate for runner-up to diversity is the top word for making fault obsolete, the word fair. It's got to be fair. Apparently everyone is entitled to a fair share of society's prosperity, whether they work 16 hours a day to help create that prosperity, or did nothing more than live off the taxpayers, or depend on begging or crying to bring in a few bucks. Apparently we owe them something just for gracing us with their presence. And even if we feel we could do without them quite well, at the other end of the income scale, the rich are supposed to pay their fair share of taxes. But at neither end of the income scale is fair share defined in a particular number. What does it mean that I should have my fair share and you should give your fair share? Nobody defines that, except the government. The government says we think your fair share should be 40%, 60%, 75%. Some of the European countries, they've tried to take anywhere between 70% and 90% of people's salaries. There's been a slight revolt going on against that. Another word that shuts down thought is access. People who fail to meet the standard for anything, from college admission to a mortgage loan, are often said to be denied access. They don't have the opportunity that you have. You may have $100,000 in the bank and decide to go out and buy a home. That gives you a little access to the market. Somebody else might be $100,000 in debt and want to go out and buy a house and not have a penny to put down. And it's unfair that they don't have the same access that you do. That's the way this runs. But equal access or equal opportunity is not the same as equal probability of success. Affordable is another popular word that serves as a substitute for thought. To say that everyone is entitled to affordable housing is very different than saying everyone should decide what kind of housing he or she can afford. My wife and I first came out in the ministry and we made every two weeks $116. I remember it well. Every two weeks we get a check for $116. Guess how much we paid for rent? We didn't pay $116. I'll guarantee you. That would have been half our salary. We also had a $66.66 college bill to pay on top of rent. Out of $116 every two weeks plus, you had to pay first tithe and second tithe. In other words, you had to tithe on these things. It wasn't a whole lot of money to go around. We could not afford a $200,000 home or even a $100 rent payment. But, as he goes on to say here, government programs to promote affordable housing will allow some people to decide what housing they want and force other people, such as taxpayers, landlords, or whatever, to absorb a share of the cost of a decision that they have no voice in. So, he goes on. I'm skipping a lot from this article, but that will give you the gist of what he's talking about. Today, we don't dare call people who are terrorists terrorists. They may be perhaps an illegal alien, or somebody who has been misunderstood. They may be an undocumented alien. But we don't dare, if somebody is a terrorist, call them what they are. When it comes to the Bible, in order to be politically correct, there are certain words that you don't say either. You know that they are trying to put out a politically correct Bible. Now, that eliminates every reference to male. You don't have father, you just have God. You don't have him, you have they. You may have women, you may have her, but when it comes to male, mankind is not mankind.

We have politically correct terms as an example for sin in our society today. How often do you find politicians talking about sin? Well, somebody may misstep. They may have a fault. I went to the website this morning to look up politically correct words for sin. It came up with a list of ten. It was listed on one website. Adulteries are called swingers. They're not adulterers, they're swingers. Who wouldn't want to be a swinger in our society? Adultery is an extramarital affair. You can have a significant other besides your wife. Homosexuals are called gay. Supposedly, that means they're gay. Embesillers today are called white-collar criminals. Not even criminals, that's just white-collar crime. You have poor abortion, reproductive rights, pro-choice. Looters are undocumented shoppers. They have been documented. Losing control is called road rage today. Instead of a lie, it's a white lie. It's just a little gray, shade of white, or shade of black. Creative accounting is falsifying the books. Coveting today is keeping up with the Joneses. You don't call it coveting, you just keep up with the Joneses. What is sin? Sin is a state of being ethically non-enlightened. I think that went over. Ethically non-enlightened. You just haven't been enlightened yet.

You may feel more comfortable referring to a sinner as one who is morally dyslexic. He doesn't get it right. Or perhaps it is simply best to say that the majority of people are mostly righteous on a good day. So you don't want to say people are bad. They're mostly righteous.

Sometimes they have bad days, and they do things that are bad. You can't refer to God as He. You must refer to God in a neutral term to say that God is a father is a prejudice term. You can't say that He is a father. That means you are prejudiced against women. You cannot be gender-specific. They don't say He is a mother either, although some do.

They refer to God as mother or her, not as Him. Now, you might catch the drift that I am drifting towards fathers today. I realize I was supposed to speak on women the next time I spoke. But since Father's Day is tomorrow, I thought it might be appropriate to speak about Father.

God in the Bible is referred to as our father. He is not referred to as our mother. That's no slam against women. But this is the way too often society will look at these things. Specifically, God is a father. Let's notice what Jesus Christ thought back in John 2, verse 16. John 2, verse 16. I got to reading through the New Testament, especially the book of John. Every place where Father is mentioned. If there is a book in the Bible where the Father is mentioned more often than John, I'm not quite sure what it is. Because Jesus Christ in the book of John refers to his Father constantly. Let's notice in verse 16, John 2, I believe. In verse 16, he said to those who sold doves, Take these things away, do not make my mother's house a house of merchandise. He doesn't say that, does he? He said, don't make my father's house a house of merchandise. In chapter 4, verse 21, I could go on the rest of the sermon just reading scriptures, because I put a little mark out in my margin where I could find these very quickly. But in verse 21, Jesus said to her, Believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. But the hour is coming now when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship him. Now, you find today in society the same thing is true, that all kinds of words are being redefined. The word family has been redefined. What is a family today? To say that a family is composed of man and woman, and if they're blessed, children, is not a family. You know, you would be looked upon as being prejudiced today, if you believe that. A family can be a man and a man, a woman and a woman, two women or two men are appropriate as parents. And if you say anything different, then you are not tolerant. That's another word. Tolerance. You are judgmental. You are a bigot. And you're probably going to be classified as a racist also. You just throw that in. Fathers today, when it comes to rearing children and families, are non-essential, not needed. Now, mothers are needed because, after all, you don't have babies without mothers. So, that's sort of a given. But men are not needed in marriage. Today, we are told to rear well-balanced children. Then I want you to notice, in 2 Corinthians 6, beginning in verse 16, section here, talking about God, it says, God is a father. He doesn't say he's a mother or a woman. Again, that's not a put-down on women. It's just the fact that the Bible refers to God as a father. Why is God referred to as a father in the Scriptures? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Well, let's go back to John 1 and verse 14, and notice what Christ had to say. John 1.14, or what it says here about Christ and his father. John 1.14, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

A father is a father because he begets. A mother is a mother because she is the one who is impregnated. Basic biology, we understand that God created us, male and female. In the reproductive cycle, a woman every month has an egg. A man is able to beget that egg through sperm cell. When that sperm cell impregnates that egg, a new life begins. The mother carries the egg. It grows into a child. But it is the father who impregnates. So he is the father because he impregnates his wife or the egg through a sperm. Let us notice about God in chapter 15 of the book of John, verse 26. John chapter 15 and verse 26. We read this, But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, talking about the Holy Spirit, that Christ would send it from the Father, says, For the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of me. As I have mentioned to you here recently, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church split over this doctrine, over the procession of the Spirit of God. One teaches that it comes from Christ, the other from the Father. Very clearly, it says here, it proceeds from the Father. Why is the Father called the Father? Because it is His Spirit that proceeds from Him through Christ that we are begotten by. Therefore, He is the Father. Christ is not called the Father, but the Father is called the Father. So you and I are begotten by God's Spirit. God's Spirit impregnates our mind. The Spirit in man is impregnated by God's Spirit. We become a separate spiritual being. God, Christ, then lives in us through the Spirit of God, but it proceeds from the Father. Today, women want to prove they are just as capable as men, just as talented as men, able to run companies, able to look, you know, to jump over tall buildings in a single bound, whatever it might be. And the thing, do anything that a man can do. But you see, when you look at it, you look at the military today, you find that women want to be equal with men in the military. In the corporate world. And they miss the basic principles. It's not a matter of whether one is more capable than the other. My wife is a very capable woman, extremely talented. I look around this room, I see a lot of very capable and talented women. I see a lot of capable men. Guess what? God made us all very capable.

But He also made us different. As hard as I might try, I can't get pregnant. And I don't know of any other men here who can get pregnant either. Women get pregnant. Women have babies. God has designed us differently. God has designed the mind of a man different than the mind of a woman.

Now, you women ask the question, my wife has articulated this to me on many occasions, Why don't men think like women? Well, we don't, do we? And we might think the same thing. Why don't women think like men? But we're all different. We're created different. And we do things differently. It's not a matter of who's more capable. God has created it so that each one is better at certain functions, certain jobs, certain responsibilities, certain duties. Women have babies. Women, as a rule, are extremely nurturing as women. They can nurse children. Now, can men take care of children, rear children? Of course they can. But as a rule, are men as nurturing as women? Well, the answer is no. We've all heard stories of men and women are not suitable to be parents. And yet, they are parents. They don't have a lick of sense. They don't know how to rear children. They don't know how to conduct a family in any of these areas. Just because you can procreate does not make a person a proper parent. We realize that both for men and women. Parents must be involved, have to have a certain level of understanding and desire to be involved with that family. Sadly, we do live in an age where many are not suitable as parents. But it's not a matter of trying to prove that one can do the same thing that the other person can do. It's a matter of fulfilling the roles and responsibilities that God gives us. I want you to notice some of the facts concerning families that do not have a father. These are not facts that I dreamed up. These are facts that if you want to type in on the internet, the importance of father and family are problems with families without a father. The only way you want to express it is to do a Bing or a Google search and see what you come up with.

63 percent of teen suicides come from fatherless homes. That's five times the national average. 90 percent of all runaways in homeless children are from fatherless homes. That's 32 times the national average. Notice 32 times the national average. 80 percent of rapists with anger problems come from fatherless homes. 14 times the national average. 85 percent of children with behavioral problems come from fatherless homes. 20 times the national average. 71 percent of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes. Nine times the national average. 75 percent of all adolescent patients and chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes. Ten times the national average. 85 percent of youth in prison come from fatherless homes. Twenty times the national average. Now, you can go on and on. This one just blows you away. Daughters of single parents without a father involved are 53 percent more likely to marry as teenagers. Which is 711 percent more likely to have children as teenagers.

711 percent. 164 more likely to have premarital birth and 92 percent more likely to get divorced themselves. 91 percent of 701 fathers surveyed by the University of Texas in Austin agreed that there is a father-absent crisis in America. Why? They listed four major reasons. Work demands. Two, the media. Three, the pop culture. Four, finances. And so all of these are listed. Researchers of Columbia University found that children living in a two-parent household with a poor relationship.

So you got both parents, but they had poor relationships with their children, with their fathers. Are 68 percent more likely to smoke, drink, or use drugs compared to all teens in two-parent households? Moreover, teens in single-mother households fare much worse. They had a 30 percent higher risk than those in all two-parent households. Without two parents working together as a team, the child has more difficulty learning the combination of empathy, fairness, and self-command that people ordinarily take for granted.

If the child does not learn this at home, society will have to manage his behavior in some other way. He may have to be rehabilitated, incarcerated, or otherwise restrained. In this case, prisons will substitute as parents. You'll go back and see the explosion of the number of people in prisons today. Why is that? Well, look at the deterioration of families. You begin to see at least one coordination. Children with fathers who are involved are 40 percent less likely to repeat a grade in school. Now, I want you to notice the emphasis on involved. Children with fathers who are involved are 70 percent less likely to drop out of school.

Children with fathers who are involved are more likely to get an A in school. Children with fathers who are involved are more likely to enjoy school and engage in extracurricular activities. Even in a crying neighborhood, 90 percent of children with stable two-parent homes or fathers involved do not become delinquent. Do you realize that up through the sixties and early seventies, that the black families in the United States of America had a higher rate of two parents in the home than whites, Caucasians, did?

The breakdown of the black families always laid on slavery, but it wasn't just due to slavery. From the time of slavery up through and until the seventies, you find that the blacks maintained stability of the family. Now, what happened in the seventies and eighties and nineties to undermine the families in the black community? And, as we begin to see today, the whites are racing right along Caucasians right behind them. Well, there were a lot of social programs. There were a lot of professors, educators who came out and said that we need to take care of those who are widowed, those who are living single moms.

And all at once, if you're a single mom and you're being taken care of by the government, it's not anything to be considered single, because you will be taken care of. The families were no longer taking care of them. Now, the government stepped in and started to take care of them. And the more our government takes care of the needy—not society, not the churches, not families, not the extended families— the more you have the breakdown of families because they no longer need a father there as a breadwinner. They know more children, more money, more they get, and they can be taken care of.

It's very interesting to see what has happened in our society today. That's why it's extremely important to have fathers in the family, to have a stable family. Adolescent girls raised in two parent homes with unbothered fathers are significantly less likely to be sexually active than girls raised without a father. Now, having read all of that, let's go back to the very beginning.

Let's go back to Genesis 1. It's always good to go back to see what God intended from the very beginning. What was His purpose for creating us? I want you to notice, beginning in Genesis 1 and verse 26. Notice God here says, God said, Let us make man, and our image according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created Him. Male and female He created them. So who created us different?

Who made one male with male characteristics and the other female with female characteristics? God did. Now, you know, when you put the two together, guess what? When you put the two together, we are more likely, as a unit, to be more like God than one by themselves. Does God have a side to Him where He is loving and nurturing and kind and considerate and thoughtful and comforting? But does He also have a side where He can be tough and strong when He needs to be?

There is a combination there. It appears that His characteristics are shared with the male and the female. So He created mankind. God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful! Multiply! Fill the earth! And the others subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves on the earth. So God is the one who created us differently.

In chapter 2, beginning in verse 24, notice, Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. So when God established the marriage unit, what did He do? He does not say, Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his other man. He doesn't say, Eve, should leave her father and mother and be joined to another woman.

Verse 25 says, they were both naked, the man and his wife. A man and a wife. That's what a marriage unit was originally designed as. We are to become one flesh, the man and his wife. God is a family. You see, what Satan the devil is attempting to do today is to absolutely destroy the understanding of what God's plan and purpose is. Hebrews 2, verse 10. Turn back to Hebrews 2, verse 10. You read here in verse 10.

It says, And bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified, in other words, those who are being set apart, are all of one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Brethren, do you realize that we have the same Father that Jesus Christ did? We are all of one of the Father.

Therefore, Jesus Christ, when he looks down on us, the Church, he looks on us as his brothers. Sisters, saying, verse 12, I will declare your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly, I will sing praise to you. Again, I will put my trust in him. Here am I and the children whom God has given me.

And so we are a family that God is in the process of creating. We need to be clear about the role of the Father and the influence of fathers. Satan wants to blur the fact that God created his male and female, that we are to be husband and wife, fathers and mothers, and that the family unit that God has established is a type of the unit of what God is doing. That he is a family, he is the Father, Christ is our elder brother, the Church in the Bible is referred to as our mother.

We grow within our mother. We come to church services. Why do we come? Why do we attend services every week? Why do we have a family? The ability to be able to congregate together and get together. Because this is where we can grow. We can hear sermons. We grow through God's Spirit in us. And collectively we come together to encourage one another, to fellowship with each other.

Satan wants to destroy that. He wants to bury the idea that God is creating a family. That you and I can be his sons and daughters in his family. And live forever as part of the family of God, the kingdom of God. He doesn't want that knowledge out there. So the relationship between God and humans is a family relationship. Satan wants to destroy that relationship. He wants to hide the fact. In the Bible it's called, blind the eyes, deceive, this type of thing.

That you and I can become a part of the family of God. That God is producing children. And those children are going to be like him. We're made in his image. We look like God. We're not made of his substance, though. God is Spirit, we're flesh. We're not automatically created as babies with his character. That's what this life is about. When you receive God's Spirit, God begins to live in us, to develop his character within us. Gives us the power and the strength to obey. He has perverted the idea that God is a family. And that God is creating sons and daughters. How has he done that?

Well, through the concept of the Trinity. The idea of the Trinity is the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. It's like a triangle. Three and one. Nobody can be a part of that. So that's a closed unit. Whereas God is not a closed unit. The Trinity says that God is somehow three persons and one. But there are all kinds of ideas out there around the world about God. A pantheon of gods are many different gods.

God's purpose today is to bring many sons to glory. You see, Satan cannot do that. That's one reason he hates God's plan. Even if he were all-powerful, he could not create little devils.

What I mean by that, he can't reproduce on a spirit level. Little devils. He's not God. He cannot beget children. He has a true family relationship like God does. But he influences man in the wrong way with wrong attitudes and wrong actions. He's also called a father. Let's go back to John 8.

John 8, verse 44.

The question is, in what way is he a father?

It says, you are of your father the devil, talking to the Jews of his day. The desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources. For he is a liar, and he's the father of it. So in what sense is he a father?

Well, he is the progenitor of lies, of murder, of fighting. He is a father in the sense of his influence on the human race. He influences the whole world to be like him, an attitude motive to mimic his attitude and his approach. Satan the devil wants everyone to be the same.

So instead of being male and female, Satan wants us all to be sort of a blend. He doesn't want us to be different. Can you remember the time when men looked like men? Women looked like women? Women were the ones who wore the earrings. Today, it's hard to tell. Hard to tell. Hairstyles and so on. So Satan the devil wants the human race to just become sort of a neutral type of thing. He doesn't want male and female. So he's a father in the fact that he's originated a lot of false ideas, false religions, false teachings, attitudes, approaches.

Look what the world is like without God the Father's main influence. Satan the devil today is called the God of this world. This society today, this age that we live in, is called this present evil age. So therefore, this age, this world, this society that we live in today is not God's world. It's the world of Satan the devil. Mankind does not know God. They don't want God in their life. They have a totally perverted opinion of what he is like. So Satan the devil has done a good job in palming all false ideas and false approaches. Notice in John 8, verse 54, what Christ said. He certainly substantiates what I just mentioned here. Verse 54 says, Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. Yet you have not known him. See, these are the Jews. They knew the Sabbath. They understood the Holy Days, tithing. They had the Old Testament. Yet what did Christ say? You have not known him. You don't know God, the true God. But I know him. If I say I do not know him, I shall be a liar like you. But I know him, and I keep his word. Christ came to reveal the Father and who the Father was. Notice chapter 15 of the book of John, verse 20. Remember the word that I said to you, A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you. If they keep my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you. For my name's sake, because they do not know him who sent me. This world does not know the Father. They do not know who he is. So when you look at this world, I read you a bunch of statistics about, in the U.S., what our society is like, our families are like, without a Father. Have you ever stopped to ask yourself, What is the world like without the influence of God the Father, without his influence being the dominant influence in society around us? Well, let me give you just a bird's eye view of the world without the influence of God. These are statistics from one of these statistics counters. Again, you can go on the internet, click on World Statistics, and there are all kinds of things you can check on. This was as of 10 a.m. by 410. It's a little different. Just one category, communicable diseases. What if all the world knew God's health laws, and were obeying God and keeping his laws? Would we have this problem? 3,443,000. I'll just summarize these. Death of children under five years of age this year. These are worldwide. 19 million abortions. We're talking about through today. We've got half a year left. 155,000 deaths of mothers during childbirth. 35 million people HIV AIDS infected in the world. 761,000 die because of HIV or AIDS. 3 million, 720,000 will die because of cancer this year. 444,000, no, I shouldn't say this year, as of this point. 444,000 die by malaria, or have died by malaria. 6,377,000 by smoking. 2,264,000. Now, let me back up here. I misquoted that. 6,377,000 cigarettes smoked today. 2,264,000 deaths caused by smoking this year. 1,333,000 deaths caused by alcohol. 485,000 suicides in the world.

181,238,000 spent on illegal drugs around the world. 611,000 deaths because of road traffic around the world. This world desperately needs the Father.

This world desperately needs God's kingdom to be set up. Think of all of the suicides, homeless children, displaced people, rape victims, people in prison, murders, violence, warfare, behavioral problems, abuse from chemical abuse, from alcohol, abuse of women and children. Lack of proper emotional, social values, religious values, and training. You could go on and on and on talking about the problems in society. That's why we are supposed to be praying on a daily basis. Thy kingdom come. Now, the Father is not going to come back immediately to this earth, but he's going to send his son as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

He's going to establish his government on this earth to rule over mankind. God's government will put an end to these type of statistics. What would it be like to go through a whole year with no suicides, no wars, no murders, no rapes, no crime?

These type of things. The problems around this reflect the depravity, the perversion, and the twisted mind of a spirit being called the Devil and his henchmen, who have influenced this world and society around this. In 1 John 4, let's notice what God is like.

I don't have time here to just compare him to the Devil. That's a study you might want to make sometime. Put a category over here. What is God like? What is the Devil like? Compare the two. But in 1 John 4, verse 7, Beloved, let us love one another, for God is love. And verse 8, He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. Beloved, in verse 11, if God so loves us, we ought also to love one another. So God is love. Do you know that love is the basis of marriage and child-rearing?

If one is going to be a father or has been a father, the very basis of what a father is supposed to be like is one who is motivated out of love.

God loved us so much, verse 14, We have seen and testify that God sent his Son as Savior of the world. John 3, 16, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Why? So we could have our sins forgiven and have eternal life. God wants to share his existence with us. Children thrive in a home where dad and mom love them unconditionally. You can go back to Romans 5, where you see that God's love is unconditional.

God loved us before we loved him. God, as verse 19 even says here, we loved him because he first loved us. God loved us while we were yet enemies. So love is the basis of marriage and the basis of having children. God is a perfect example of what a father is like. You and I, as fathers, are to look to him as examples. Love involves a total concern for the other person, for their health, their mental, emotional, and physical well-being, their development in all aspects of their lives, their mental, their social lives, their value, their educational, their talents, their gifts.

Boys learn how to treat women by observing how dad treats mom. How are they going to learn how to treat a woman? How do you? How have you treated your wife? The attitude that a man has in general towards women, if he's always making snot remarks or off-colored remarks about women and putting them down or joking in a vulgar way, boys are going to pick up on that, and they're going to learn from that.

Girls learn to have a proper relationship with the opposite sex from their dads, and they don't go out looking for that male love if they get it at home in a proper way from their dad. Let's notice in 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 7. 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 7. Something that the apostle Paul mentions here. Beginning in verse 7. He says, "...we," referring to himself and the other ministers, "...were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children." So Paul, as a minister, was like, in this case, a mother, a nursing mother who cherishes her own child.

"...so affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not only the gospel of God, but our own lies, because you had become dear to us." So notice the terms that he uses. Gentle, affectionate, dear. This was Paul's attitude toward his church family that he dealt with. In verse 9, "...for you remember, brethren, our labor and toil, for we labored night and day," he said.

A father, yes, has to discipline, has to correct, has to direct his family, but he also has to be gentle and loving. His wife should be dear to him. His children should be dear to him. And many times a man may have to work night and day to provide for his family, especially as they're trying to get established.

My dad, I remember, worked two jobs. He used to get up at 6 o'clock in the morning, work to noon, come in and get cleaned up and go to work. He worked from 3 to 11 on the railroad. The other time he was working on the farm. So he'd work six hours on the farm, go work eight hours on the railroad, come back. Now, I don't know how they did this, but my parents would sit up and drink a pot of coffee, watch Johnny Carson go to bed at 1, up at 6.

They knew every day. After a while that would kill me, but they just seemed to function and go along very well. But I had a dad that, even though we were considered poor, that I knew who loved me because he was willing to go out and sacrifice and work to provide for us. It wasn't until later, and I've recounted this to you, when he was on what we thought was his deathbed, that he finally ever heard him say, I love you.

And he said that, and thereafter he had no trouble saying it. It seemed like he had to get over something before he was able to say that. Verse 10, notice, You are witnesses in God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you, who believe. As you know, how we exhorted, we comforted, and we charged every one of you as a father does his own children. So notice, a father should comfort his children.

He should charge his children. The word charge means, from Loni to Greek lexicon, to insist on going the right way. To insist, to teach the right way. We have to set the standards for our family. So here are instructions from Paul, talking about a father, the way that we should deal with our families on how to be a father. In 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 3, 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, and verse 3, notice, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of comfort, who comforts us in all of our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort those who are troubled, but the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted.

So God is a God of comfort, a God who shows mercy. God is able to encourage us, strengthen us, when we go through trials and troubles and difficulties. God is very much aware of our emotional and mental struggles, difficulties we have in overcoming, trying to overcome the faults and problems we have. Brethren, so should we be with our own children. Nobody's children grow up perfect. Ours didn't.

Yours don't. And we all had to struggle with our children. We realized that they had deficiencies. And there are times they need encouragement. They need help. And they need you to come alongside of them. And this is what a father is like. God the Father comforts. He encourages. He also teaches. Notice, Deuteronomy 6, in Deuteronomy 6, and let's notice here in verse 4.

Deuteronomy 6, 4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. And you shall teach them diligently to your children. And you shall talk to them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up. And so we are to teach our children. Now, certainly this involves Bible study. To teach God's way, to make God's way come alive. But it also involves teaching Biblical principles, proper examples, such as proof of creation, why there has to be a God, how creation explains the attributes of God. They need to grow up learning why we live this way of life. If you ever stop to ask yourself, can you explain to your children, or can you explain to others, the great questions of life? You know what the great questions of life are? There are many of them, but 10. I can enumerate 10 for you. What is the nature of God? What is God like? Who is God? What is good? What is evil? What is the nature of the universe? What is man's place in the universe? Where do we fit in? Does man have an immortal soul? Fate versus free will. Is man free to choose? Or is everything decided? Man or the state? Who is supreme? Man or the state? Man in education. What is education? What should education do for the individual? Which is superior? The mind or matter? Which is greater? Where do we get our ideas? Where do they come from? Where do they originate? Actually, we need to be giving sermons on every one of these. We could give several sermons going through them, because these are some of the great questions of life. These are questions that we, if your children are gone, that you need to sit down as husband and wife, discuss them. We need to teach our children as they're growing up.

Finally, a father will also discipline his children. Notice in chapter 8 of Deuteronomy 8. It says that you should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord, your God, chastens you. God will chasten us for our good, for our benefit, to put us on the right track, to show us the way to go. God doesn't chasten us because he loses his anger. He says, okay, that's all I can take. And boom! He's going to come down on us. God chastens us because we're going the wrong way. We may be doing something that's going to hurt us, lead us in the wrong direction, take us over the edge where we won't have eternal life. We're being misdirected. Notice in Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12, beginning in verse 5, we find that God will correct the sons that he loves. It says, My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord. Verse 6, For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and he scourges every son whom he receives. Now, why does God do this? Verse 10, For they, indeed, talking about us as physical parents, indeed, for a few days chasten us as it seems best to them. But he, for our profit, it profits us spiritually, for our growth, our development, our changing, that we may be partakers of his holiness. God wants us to be holy as he is holy. So, if we're doing things that are unholy, he'll come along. If we don't correct it by Bible study and prayer and fasting, eventually he's going to have to come along and say, Uh-uh, don't go that way. This is the way. Walk you in it. Verse 11, Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful, nevertheless, afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. When you're correcting a child, especially, you might be physically punishing them, do they jump up and down and say, Oh, thank you, Dad! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm glad you're spanking me. No, there's a little pain associated with it. But later on, when you ask them, Do you know why I corrected you? See, this is where parents let down when it comes to child rearing. There are three steps. One, they've got to know WHAT they did wrong. WHY it's wrong. I'm doing this because you did this. This is the reason why it's wrong. You've got to be responsible for your actions. Then you correct them. Once they acknowledge and you talk to them, and they say, I was wrong, I see, then you love them. They learn that love and correction and responsibility all go hand in hand. But if you just do one without the other, it's not going to produce the right fruit.

As it says here, verse 11, Afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. It develops the proper values and character within us. So, brethren, in the United States, we observe Father's Day, we observe Mother's Day to honor our parents.

We should honor our parents every day of our life. That doesn't mean you send them a gift every day, or a card every day, or do that. But in your own mind, you should honor them. They gave you life. It may not have been perfect. You're not perfect. But they trained and guided and directed you. As we do honor our dads, let's not forget to honor God our Father, and what He is doing, and what He has done to bring many sons to glory.