Psalm 103:13-18
A Bible-Trained Father
What does the Bible teach about being a father? Does it teach anything?
The answer is the Bible teaches much about being a father. In fact, throughout
the world and throughout history, the way men treat their children, their wives,
and each other, dramatically changes for the better when the Bible is accepted
and put into practice.
A case in point is America. When the Bible was revered in America:
1. Our divorce rate was much lower.
2. Our crime rate was much lower.
3. Our teenage pregnancy rate was much lower.
4. We had fewer run-aways, fewer abandonments, fewer fatherless homes.
5. We had less youth violence, less youth crime, less crime in general.
6. We had a higher graduation rate.
Some people want to vilify God and the Bible because God punishes sin and
sinners. The truth is that God does punish sin and sinners and if you forget
that (or just put it out of your mind), you are a fool. But, if you will
surrender to God and obey His Word, you will find that He is full of mercy and
grace and love, and He will use His power to bless and help you.
Dads, there is never an hour more important than the present hour and in this
present hour, dads need to know what the Bible says about being a godly father
and need to do it.
What does the Bible teach?
I. The Bible teaches that a good father will be a faithful father.
A. The word faithful, means constant, steadfast, loyal.
1. There is a consistency in a Bible-trained father that extends
beyond just his behavior toward his children.
a. A lot of people want a quick fix on how to be a good parent.
b. Some men read books about how to be a good dad.
c. Before you can be a good dad, you have to be a good man.
2. The Bible-trained father is different all the way down to his
character. The way he thinks, behaves, acts, and lives is
different.
3. He will be dependable, constant, loyal; that is faithful.
B. A faithful father will build a steadfast home because he will be
there.
1. A Bible-trained father will stay with his wife.
Genesis 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall
cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Ecclesiastes 9:9 Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of
the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of
thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou
takest under the sun.
Mal 2:14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee
and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is
she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
2. A Bible-trained father will love his wife.
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church,
and gave himself for it;
Colossians 3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
3. A Bible-trained father will honor, protect, and cherish his wife.
1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge,
giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs
together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
Proverbs 5:18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy
youth.
19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee
at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
II. A Bible-trained father will be a kind.
A. He will be a kind father but even more, he will be a kind man.
The kindest, most loving, most gracious men in the world, are Bible-
trained men.
B. A Bible-trained father will have pity on his children.
Psalms 103:13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them
that fear him.
1. Again, some want to vilify the Bible because the Bible teaches
fathers to discipline (even spank) their children.
2. Bible-trained fathers do spank their children when needed, but
that is not their desire.
3. Bible-trained fathers are loving, forgiving, tender toward their
children—just like God is to them!
C. A Bible-trained father delights in his children.
Proverbs 3:12 For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son
in whom he delighteth.
1. A Bible-trained father loves his children, encourages his
children, enjoys his children.
2. A Bible-trained father spends time with his children.
D. A Bible-trained father does not do things to frustrate, discourage,
or hurt his children.
Ephesians 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring
them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Colossians 3:21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be
discouraged.
E. A Bible-trained father is giving and forgiving of his children.
Luke 11:11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he
give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how
much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
Luke 15:20 And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great
way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck,
and kissed him.
21 And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy
sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it
on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:
III. A Bible-trained father will be a teacher and a trainer.
A. It is not the Bible-trained father who wants to abandon his children
to a humanistic education system.
1. A Bible-trained father does not want his children in a mandatory,
compulsory, year-round school from before breakfast until after
supper.
2. I find it strange how the world claims they love children but
wants the state to have them from daylight until dark.
3. No. That’s what the world is pushing, but the Bible-trained
father wants to have his children with him and desires to
teach and train them himself.
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he
will not depart from it.
Deut 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine
heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of
them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and
when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Psalms 78:5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in
Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to
their children:
6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should
be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
Ephesians 6:4 And, ye fathers,…bring them up in the nurture and admonition of
the Lord.
IV. A Bible-trained father will be a man of God.
A. Not only will a Bible-trained father love his children and his wife,
providing a stable home environment for them; not only will he be
kind, gentle, and a good teacher and trainer to them; but he will
care for their spiritual needs as well.
B. A Bible-trained father will the priest of the home, offering prayers
for his family.
Job 1:4 And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and
sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent
and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt
offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my
sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
1. This text was given before God had instituted the office of priest
in Israel.
2. Job, as the dad, was the priest of the home.
3. Dads today don’t offer sacrifices, but we should certainly offer
prayers.
C. A Bible-trained father will the prophet of the home.
1. Both priest and prophet are spiritual offices but they are
different.
2. Some think the essential gift of the prophet was the ability to
perform miracles and proclaim the future,
3. It wasn’t as only a few could do those things.
4. The essential gift of the prophet was to PERCEIVE the mind of
God.
Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto
his servants the prophets.
1 Samuel 9:9 (Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to enquire of God, thus he
spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was
beforetime called a Seer.)
5. When Saul’s father had lost his mules, he went to the prophet for
help.
6. The prophet knew the mind of God.
7. Dad, in these days, we need men in the home who know the mind of
God.
a. One who knows the mind of God about right and wrong.
b. One who knows the mind of God about dangers, temptations, and
the activity of our enemy, the devil.
D. A Bible-trained father will be a person pursuing God.
1. One of the first commandments Jesus gave to His disciples was also
His last-- FOLLOW ME.
Matthew 4:19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of
men.
John 21:19…And when he (Jesus) had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.
2. Today, if you are a Bible-trained father, you will be in hot
pursuit of Jesus, wanting to be like Him in as many different
ways as possible.
3. One of the first commandments Jesus gave to His disciples was also
His last.
Dads, some closing thoughts about important you are to your family:
Homes without a father are...
...9 times more likely to drop out of high school.
...2.5 times more likely to become a teen parent.
...37% more likely to abuse drugs.
...twice as likely to live in poverty twice as likely to commit a crime.
http://www.fightpoverty.mmbrico.com/reasons/family.html
Fatherless homes produce:
85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes.
71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes.
75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless
homes.
70% of juveniles in state operated institutions come from fatherless homes.
85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in fatherless homes.
80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes.
90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes.
http://www.fathermag.com/news/1780-stats.shtml
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