Father's Day

Visibility is Credibility

Genesis 3:9

1.  God didn't ask the woman where she was, but the man.

• Your presence is powerful.
• There is a position that God created the man to take up and remain in through difficulty.
• "Adam, you are out of position when you hide" - even if it's to own up to a mistake.
• Are you out of position?  Working in the wrong field?  Fighting the wrong battle?  Looking for love and intimacy in the wrong places?
• Good dads sustain, encourage, nurture, protect.
• God's sustenence of us does not depend on our behaviour or how we receive the provision - He sustains what He creates because of His goodness as a father.

2.  Don't withhold your heart from your children - be authentic, vulnerable and reassuring.

• Your kids don't want perfection - they want reality, so they can adjust to life as it really is.
• Malachi 4:6 - "He will turn the hearts of the Fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers."
• Spiritual fathering is one of the greatest needs of today's generation - probably, Gen X is over entertained and under fathered.
• A rebel doesn't have a father's heart to nurture him and doesn't have a son's heart either.
• Christ and the church is your hope.
• Boys, the way to manhood is to follow Jesus Christ.
• Four wrong images the world shoves at you - gender benders, wimps, macho males, pretenders.  Jesus wants you to initiate love, commit to a girl, unify your family, make some sacrifices, set an example, be authentic.
• The curse of fathers and children not understanding each other is broken through tears.
• Don't train leaders;  raise up sons and daughters.

Conclusion:

• Men, we are all "prodigal sons" who need to "come to our senses" and stop hanging out in the pig pen and eating slops and left overs.  Return home to your heavenly Father.  Live in His grace, forgiveness, acceptance and provision.
• When a man returns to Christ and accepts His redemption, he returns to his rightful position in creation, living as a Son of God first, which releases him to be a father to others.  Healing the brokeness of mankind and sustaining marriages, families, churches, communities and nations.