Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads here today. Being a father is a great privilege that God has given to us, a privilege to lead and guide our families in the ways of God. Being a father is also a great responsibility. It’s not so easy wearing all the hats that a dad has to wear these days.
I’ve found out it’s a lot of hard work being a good father. It’s not always so easy to do the right things and keep all the parts of my life in balance. In fact, I’ve discovered that I’m not smart enough to be a good father. I don’t know enough to really lead my family well. So what can we as fathers do?
Today I’m going to talk about “How To Lead Your Family.” Even though I don’t know enough to lead my family, God does. In order to be a good father, in order to know how to lead my family, I need to listen to and learn from God. Today we’re going to take a look at the life of a well known yet little talked about father. His name is Joseph, he was the earthly father of Jesus.
Now Mary became pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph wasn’t involved at all. Yet Joseph was a very important father. God chose him to raise Jesus and I believe that God knew what He was doing. In the Bible, Joseph is never recorded as saying anything. What Joseph does is to listen to God and then he obeys Him. I think that’s a pretty good example for us as well. Listen, learn from God and then obey Him. That’s how to learn to lead your family in the way that God wants.
NLT James 1:5 If you need wisdom– if you want to know what God wants you to do– ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking. As a father, you need wisdom to lead your family. As a father, you need to know what God wants you to do. As a father, you need to know what you should give priority to in your life. So the Bible tells you to ask God and it promises that God will gladly tell you.
Today we’re going to look at three areas that God wants to teach you as a father in. Three times an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and instructed him how to lead his family. I’m going to look at each of these three learning occasions in the life of Joseph and apply them to our lives today.
To hear more about this topic, listen to my June 18, 2006 message entitled How To Lead Your Family