Happy Father’s Day! Let’s begin with a video on a Broader Perspective on Father’s Day. Being a father is an awesome privilege and a great responsibility. Today our message is entitled “When It Seems Hopeless.” There may be times in the life of a father where the situation seems hopeless. I believe that God wants to bring hope into your life today that will never give up.
Ephesians 3:14-15 (ESV) For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
When we think about what being a father means we need to look at the example of our heavenly father. As a father, we should seek to be like our father in heaven. As He treats His children, so should we raise our children.
Ephesians 6:4 (ESV) Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Fathers are to use discipline and instruction with their children. Not discipline and instruction of their own choosing, but that of the Lord, which is found in God’s Word. Discipline is meant to discourage wrong behavior, whereas instruction is to encourage and reward right behavior. The most essential task of a father is to see that their children become children of God by being saved. Then they seek to see their children grow in the Lord through water baptism and Spirit baptism.
Proverbs 14:26 (ESV) In the fear of the LORD one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge.
In order to bring up godly children, fathers need to have a strong relationship with their heavenly Father as well. In Proverbs, this is often spoken of as having the fear of the Lord. When a father is walking in the fear of the Lord, he will have a strong confidence. This is a strong confidence in the power of the Lord in his own life and in the lives’ of his children.
The promise to a father who fears the Lord is that his children will have refuge or protection in the Lord as well. The responsibility of a father for his children continues after they leave the home. A father with adult children can continue to bring blessing into his children’s lives through prayer, counsel and support. Today, we are going to learn from an example in God’s Word, what we are to do when things seem hopeless. When things seem hopeless for our children, our family or ourselves, God still has a plan. Nothing is impossible for Him.