father’s day

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Title: “How to Be a Godly Father”
Series: [No Series]

Introduction:

[1]A Texas dad (who did not want to offer his name) had some unexpected excitement on his family vacation. After the man and his family spent the night at a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, they stopped to eat and fill up their gas tank. That’s when the trip got really interesting. When the family hit the road they left dad behind at the gas station.

The father explained what happened: “Somebody had been sleeping all night in the back and they were going to drive and I was going to get in the back and sleep. I went inside to get my change for the gas and they thought I was already loaded up and closed all the doors and took off.”

The dad tried to call his own cell phone, which was still in the van, but nobody answered it. He said, “Six different cell phones and nobody answers and my phone is in there because it’s on the charger and nobody answers it and then it starts going straight to voicemail. I mean, that’s odd.”

The father called the police, but it was social media that saved the day. The frantic dad borrowed a computer from a local motel and got in touch with his family through Facebook. The van was about 100 miles away by the time he finally reached his family. The story had a happy ending: the family turned around, picked up dad, and continued their vacation. The dad indicated to reporters that he’s confident the entire incident was just a huge mistake.

Fathers, can you relate to this man? I know we don’t like to say much about it, but the truth is many of us feel like we have been forgotten. We know that if Mom was gone for more than two minutes the whole house would fall apart, but some of us get the feeling that we dads could be gone for a week and no one would notice, unless something got broken and they needed us to fix it.

Today we want to discover how to be a Father that is remembered for more than just being available when something needs fixed. We are going to be looking at Philippians 2 where Paul tells us about Timothy and Epaphroditus, two examples of men who followed God’s instructions for being a godly man that will help us in our quest to be good fathers. So let’s discover five characteristics of God’s model man.

1. COMPASSION: MEN WHO PUT RELATIONSHIPS BEFORE RESULTS

Philippians 2:20-21

2. CONSISTENCY: MEN WHO PUT CHARACTER BEFORE CONFORMITY

Philippians 2:22; Proverbs 10:9

3. COOPERATION: MEN WHO PUT COOPERATION BEFORE COMPETITION

Philippians 2:25

4. COMMITMENT: MEN WHO PUT CHRIST BEFORE COMFORT

Philippians 2:25-27

5. COURAGE: MEN WHO PUT SERVICE BEFORE SECURITY

Philippians 2:29-30; Mark 8:35

 

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[1]WMC-TV, “Kids leave dad at gas station, realize mistake 100 miles away,” (6-25-13)

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