Being a father is a great responsibility and a great privilege. It is a great responsibility because God has given us children to raise. And those children are also a great privilege, for they are gifts from God that He has blessed us with. The very name, father, comes from our heavenly father.
Ephesians 3:14-15 (HCSB) For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.
Our greatest responsibility and privilege is to represent and teach our children about their heavenly Father, both in our words and actions.
Let’s see what the Bible has to say about a father’s responsibility.
Ephesians 6:4 (NIV) Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Fathers are not to make unreasonable demands on their children, but rather to help them mature in their understanding of and relationship with the Lord. That is a father’s main responsibility. When you put the spiritual aspect of child-rearing first, then the other aspects will fall into place.
As a father, how do you bring your children up in the training and instruction of the Lord? First of all, fathers need to have a growing relationship with Jesus Christ in order to properly represent Him to their children. A child’s view of God, the church and the Bible will be strongly influenced by his father. Studies of church attendance show that if a father regularly attends church with his children, the percentage of children who attend church as adults is far greater than if the mother alone regularly attended church with the children. So the father’s spiritual leadership is a very important factor in his children’s spiritual growth.
A child’s view of what God is like is also deeply influenced by their relationship with their father. If a father is not loving and forgiving, then it will be difficult for a child to see their heavenly father as loving and and forgiving. If a father has too high expectations for his children and exasperates them, the children will think that God is the same way and that they can’t possibly please him. Bottom line is that we, as fathers need to show our children the reality of God, both in our words and through our actions. Do we live life as though God is real and in first place in our lives, or is he just an afterthought?
Today, my message is entitled “Showing the Reality of God.” As fathers, God’s plan is for our to show His reality to our children, day in and day out. Today, we’re going to look at an Old Testament prophet who demonstrated the reality of God to learn some lessons that we as fathers can apply to our lives. This prophet is a hero of faith and I believe is an example for fathers to also be heroes of faith to their own families.
What is a prophet? A prophet is someone who speaks God’s Word and represents God to others. So, a godly father in one sense has a prophetic role. A godly father is to speak God’s Word into his children’s lives and accurately represent God to them.
Our story begins in a dark period of Israel’s history. Israel was ruled by a wicked king named Ahab and his wife Jezebel who was systematically killing off the Lord’s prophets. In response, the Lord had directed Elijah, the prophet, to pray and stop the rain as judgment, so the land was in a severe drought. The people were indifferent to the things of God. They wanted to worship God and yet they wanted to also call on the idol Baal, the god of rain and the weather. So God directed Elijah to meet with King Ahab.
Listen to or watch my June 17, 2012 message Showing the Reality of God.