And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre,
and he sat in the tent-door in the heat of the day.
And he lift up his eyes and looked,
and lo, three men stood by him.
And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent-door,
and bowed himself toward the ground, and said,
My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight,
pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant.
Let a little water, I pray, you be fetched,
and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.
Thou wilt fetch a morsel of bread,
and comfort you your hearts.
After that, you shall pass on,
for therefore are ye come to your servant.
And they said, So do as thou hast said.
And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said,
Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal,
knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.
And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf,
tender and good, and gave it unto a young man,
and he hasted to dress it.
And he took butter, and milk, and the calf,
which he had dressed, and set it before them.
And he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.
And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife?
And he said, Behold in the tent.
And he said, I will certainly return unto thee,
according to the time of life.
And lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son.
And Sarah heard it in the tent-door, which was behind him.
Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well-stricken in age,
and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.
Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying,
After I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure
in my lord being old also?
And the lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh,
saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, wish him old?
Is anything too hard for the lord?
At the time appointed, I will return unto thee,
according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not,
for she was afraid.
And he said, nay, but thou didst laugh.
And the men rose up from thence and looked toward Sodom,
and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.
And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham that thing which
I do?
Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty
nation, and all the nations of the earth
shall be blessed in him, for I know him,
that he will command his children and his household
after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord
to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham
that which he hath spoken of him.
And the Lord said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah
is great, and because their sin is very grievous,
I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether
according to the cry of it which has come unto me.
And if not, I will know.
And the men turned their faces from thence
and went toward Sodom.
But Abraham stood yet before the Lord.
And Abraham drew near and said, wilt thou also
destroy the righteous with the wicked?
For adventure there be fifty righteous within the city.
Wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty
righteous that are therein?
That be far from thee to do after this manner,
to slay the righteous with the wicked.
And the righteous should be as the wicked.
That be far from thee.
Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?
And the Lord said, if I find and sought
them fifty righteous within the city,
then I will spare all the place for their sakes.
Nebriam answered and said, behold now,
I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which
am but dust and ashes.
Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous.
Wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five?
And he said, if I find forty and five, I will not destroy it.
And he spake unto him yet again and said,
peradventure there shall be forty found there.
And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake.
And he said unto him, oh, let not the Lord be angry,
and I will speak.
Peradventure there shall be thirty found there.
And he said, I will not do it if I find thirty there.
And he said, behold now, I have taken upon me
to speak unto the Lord.
Peradventure there shall be twenty found there.
And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake.
And he said, oh, let not the Lord be angry,
and I will speak yet but this once.
Peradventure ten shall be found there.
And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.
And the Lord went his way, as soon as he had left
communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned unto his place.
Let's pray, dear Lord God, thank you again
for this opportunity to assemble in your house.
I just ask that you would meet with us here now this morning.
Please fill, brother Moore, with your Holy Spirit,
and bless the preaching of your word,
and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
- All right, good morning, everyone.
Obviously, happy Father's Day to everyone here,
and obviously for Pastor Mia is not feeling well,
so it's a great opportunity for me to be able to preach,
and I'm happy that I was able to be able to prepare
a sermon for you guys today.
So, look down at your Bibles in Genesis, excuse me,
Genesis 18, but look down at verse 17.
It says, and the Lord said, "Shall I hide from Abraham
"that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham
"shall surely become a great and mighty nation,
"and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.
"For I know him that he will command his children
"and his household after him,
"and they shall keep the way of the Lord
"to do justice and judgment,
"that the Lord may bring upon Abraham
"that which he hath spoken of him."
And the Lord said, "Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah
"is great, and because their sin is very grievous,
"I will go down now and see whether they have done
"altogether according to the cry of it,
"which I come unto me, and if not, I will know."
Let's pray, let's about it in the word of prayer.
Dear Lord, thank you for giving us another day,
and Lord, I just pray that the things
that you put upon my heart,
that I'm able to present those truths, Lord,
and just thank you for what you give us,
and Lord, I pray that the church can be edified.
I just pray in the name of the name of the man.
All right, so here Abraham, he's greeted by three men.
And so we see earlier in the chapter,
he's greeted by three men,
one of whom we would say is a pre-incarnate form
of Jesus Christ.
And so there's a question that we would,
I would say who Jesus is here.
There's a question that he asks him.
And so he asks him in this question,
look down at verse 17, it says,
and the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham the thing
which I do?
Now, obviously, sorry, I said that he asked him,
but ultimately, this is a question that he asked
amongst himself to a certain extent.
We kind of get a chance to get a glimpse
into kind of like the thought process of God,
or at least what God wanted us to know
in this particular passage.
And so we get a chance to see this glimpse,
and he says, shall I hide this thing that I'm gonna do?
And so he's referring about destroying Sodom and Gomorrah.
So he's talking about, I'm gonna destroy Sodom and Gomorrah,
and he's trying to see, should he tell Abraham this?
Tell him what he's gonna do.
And as you read on a little bit further down in verse 19,
it says, "For I know him that he will commend his children
"and his household after him,
"and they shall keep the way of the Lord
"to do justice and judgment,
"that the Lord may bring upon Abraham
"that which he hath spoken of him."
And so we see here that he's about to tell,
he's about to tell him what's gonna happen
to Sodom and Gomorrah.
And the thing, every time I read this passage,
when I, in my Bible reading,
I would always kind of come to the conclusion,
I was like, man, that's kind of cool
that God thought it worthy enough for, you know,
for to tell Abraham this, to kind of come to him
and just kind of let him know
prior to those things actually happening.
And I always thought like, man,
it would be such a great honor
when you see certain places in the Bible
where, you know, like when Job is like,
has thou considered my servant Job?
And it's like, that's such a great honor
for the God of the universe
to have that thought process about you.
Like, has thou considered my servant,
you know, fill in the blank?
Have that considered my servant Mori?
And, you know, as I thought on this
and I thought about this passage
and I thought about this, you know,
ultimately the Bible actually teaches
that God did do this for us.
He actually did come out and show us
the things that are gonna happen.
And it's not necessarily an individual thing
for Abraham that it happened,
but it actually happens for all of us.
And I was kinda, as I was kinda thinking about this,
I was like, oh wait, God did this for me.
God did this for you.
God did this for us.
And, you know, the way he gave that to us
or did that for us is he actually gave us his word.
All 66 books of the Bible,
no matter what the Catholics say,
you know, he gave us 66 books.
And in his word, he gave us his word
so that we can learn about God,
so we can go closer to God,
so that we can do his commandments
and follow his rules and ordinances.
And in John chapter 20 verse 29, it says,
"And Jesus saith unto him,
'Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed.
Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.'"
And so we actually kind of get like,
in a sense of kind of like a greater reward
because we haven't seen Jesus.
We haven't seen, we haven't seen the certain things
that other people in the Bible were able to see.
I mean, just imagine being able to be right there
with the Lord Jesus Christ, seeing him perform miracles
and do these great acts.
And it makes it hard to kind of come to the conclusion
like you didn't believe on the things
that Jesus Christ said.
So he gave us his word.
And, you know, really in our reality,
when it comes to this thought process,
we are worthy to have the oracles of God.
We're worthy because he gave it to us.
And ultimately, at the end of the day,
God told us what's gonna happen from the end
to the beginning and vice versa.
So one of the things that we have to do is we have to,
you know, we have to prepare ourselves for serving God
or prepare ourselves for the truths
that God is gonna give us.
And the way we do that, one,
is by ultimately getting saved.
So we need to get saved.
We need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
trust on Him, believe that Jesus Christ
paid for all of our sins,
and then ultimately we need to teach others
to do the same as well.
Teach other people how to get saved,
teach other people how to teach other people
how to get saved as well.
And so we need to be woke as well.
And what does that mean?
Well, that's like a term that's used today
of kind of being awake, right?
And so we need to be awake of the spiritual battles
that are going on today.
And we need to be awake to the spiritual warfare that's
going on today.
And obviously, I just want to let you guys--
this will be a sermon on Father's Day.
And the sermon title is "Seven Traits of Every Good Father."
And so as fathers, God has given us a job.
He has expectations of us.
He has things that he wants us to do.
And he kind of gave this--
as we see in this passage, he kind of
gave this thought process.
He was saying, well, he's going to lead his children.
He's going to teach his children the ways of the Lord,
and judgment, and equity, and these different types of things.
And so God didn't give you--
if you're a father, and obviously if you're a husband
as well, God didn't give you your wife by accident.
God didn't give you your children by accident.
God wants you to show his glory to your children.
He obviously-- it's obviously a great blessing to have kids.
But if you do have kids, God wants
you to express that love that you have for God,
and he wants you to tell your children that as well.
Deuteronomy chapter 6, in verse 5, it says,
"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day,
shall be in thine heart."
And so one thing that's just very important to kind of like--
and this is all in Way Introduction--
is to ultimately keep God in our minds and in our thoughts
and actions.
And we need to basically have His word in our heart.
And it says in verse 7, "And thou
shall teach them diligently unto thy children,
and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house,
and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou lies down,
and when thou rises up."
And so when it comes to our children
and our families ultimately as a whole,
we need to be able to express the truths of the Bible.
And it just basically addresses in every position
that your children are in to teach your children.
And when you're walking, when you're laying down,
right when you're about to get up,
you're just always kind of just teaching your children
different things.
And it's obviously amazing to have children.
It's a blessing from the Lord.
But make no mistake that this is a huge job
that we have as fathers.
This is a huge job that we have as fathers.
And God has bestowed upon us our children
so that ultimately we can step up to the plate.
And we shouldn't take this job lightly.
As before I get started, ultimately, I'm
not here to tell you that I'm like the perfect father
or that I have it all together or everything that I do.
That's the way a parent should do.
But I strive for a lot of these traits here
so that I can become better.
And I have a desire to be as good of a father as I can.
And so I'm not only up here preaching to you guys,
but I'm preaching to myself as well,
because these are truths that I personally
feel as well that we all can have room for improvement.
Seven traits of every good father.
First and foremost, a good father
needs to be a spiritual leader.
A good father needs to be a spiritual leader.
Turn your Bibles to Exodus 32.
Exodus 32, chapter Exodus 32.
A good father needs to be a spiritual leader.
Now what is a spiritual leader?
Well first and foremost, obviously you have to be a leader,
but you have to be spiritual
if you want to be a spiritual leader.
What does being spiritual mean?
Well ultimately that means that you're saved, right?
That you're a man, that you walk with God,
that you meditate on God's word,
and that you have a relationship with God.
And obviously we kind of stay away from words like that
because of Christians out there,
but really we want to have a conversation with God
and talk to God and tell him how we feel
and tell him what's going on in our life,
asking him for things.
Want to have a relationship with God.
Joshua chapter 24 verse 15 says,
"And if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord,
"choose this day whom you will serve,
"whether the gods which your father served
"and that were on the other side of the flood,
"or the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell.
"But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
Joshua was making, this is a famous verse
that we like to quote, and most of us probably
have this verse in our house somewhere,
where it's just saying, as for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord.
And what comes with that is the spiritual leadership
to be able to, sometimes you have to crack some heads.
And I know it's not, not physically, right?
I'm not telling you to crack heads at home,
but we need to crack some heads when it comes to spiritual,
spiritual matters that can creep into our house.
Exodus 32 verse 26, look down to verse 26,
it says, then Moses said, stood in the gate of the camp
and said, who is on the Lord's side?
Let them come unto me and all the sons of Levi
gathered themselves together unto him.
And he said unto him, thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
put every man his sword by his side and go in and out
from the gate or from gate to gate throughout the camp
and slay every man, his brother and every man,
his company, his companion and every man, his neighbor.
And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses
and their fill of the people that day, 3,000 men.
You know, sometimes, like I said earlier,
sometimes you gotta have, as a spiritual leader,
you need to make decisions
and you need to make judgment calls for your family.
As the leader, as the spiritual leader of the house,
you need to make some decisions.
And sometimes you need to knock down some bad ideas
that can creep into your house.
And you need to be the protector of your family,
you need to be the protector of your homes.
You know, if your wife says,
"Eat this fruit that God told us not to eat,"
you say, "No, I'm not gonna eat that.
"Get this avocado right here, I like this."
Right?
You know, let's try some apples, you know?
But when it comes to, when it comes to strong leadership,
you need to sometimes,
you need to just sometimes tell people no.
You know, if it's protecting your wife from, you know,
family members or people trying to get into your marriage,
et cetera, and things like that.
Or, you know, if they say, you know,
if like Sarah, like go into my maiden
and then we'll be able to fulfill the prophecy
that God said that you're gonna have a child.
No, I'm not gonna do that.
We're gonna wait on the Lord.
I'm not gonna go be with someone else.
I have you as my wife, God promised me.
I have the faith.
I know that you're gonna come through.
You need to stand up and be the spiritual leader
in your house.
When it comes to our children, our sons,
turn your Bible to Proverbs chapter five,
Proverbs chapter five.
Stay in Proverbs for the most of the sermon.
We're gonna keep going, jumping back and forth in Proverbs.
Proverbs chapter five, Proverbs chapter five.
Proverbs chapter two, as it pertains to a son,
it said one of the things that, you know,
for us as spiritual leaders,
we need to be able to tell our son
to stay away from the strange woman.
I mean, stay away from the strange woman.
Proverbs two, verse 16, it says,
"To deliver thee from the strange woman,
"even from the stranger with flat earth with her words."
You're there in verse, you're there in verse chapter five.
I'm gonna read verse three.
It says, "For the lips of a strange woman
"drop as on honeycomb, and her mouth is smoothed in oil."
And I'm gonna, and ultimately for us,
we're gonna, I'm gonna encourage my son,
hey, stay away from the strange woman.
Stay away from the whore.
Stay away from the vile person,
because that woman has no desire
to do the things of the Lord with you, right?
She doesn't have the desire to serve God
and to be with you forever.
She just wants to use you.
She just wants to abuse you to a certain extent.
And her mouth, it says her mouth is smoothed in oil.
I mean, she says the right things.
She's, oh, you're so strong.
You know, you're the best looking person
I've ever seen in my life.
Now, let me just stop there for a second, all right?
If someone says that to you, I've seen all you guys.
No, I'm joking.
(laughing)
Right?
But ultimately, she's just saying these things
to be able to get something that she wants.
Look down at verse 20, it says,
Proverbs 5, verse 20 says,
"And thou, and why wilt thou, my son,
"be ravished with a strange woman
"and embrace the bosom of a stranger,
"to keep thee from the evil woman,
"from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman?"
Here again, it's just saying stay away
from the strange woman, the evil woman.
And in later passages, it actually says
that she flatters with her words.
It says that in Proverbs 23 verse 27,
it says, "For a whore is a deep ditch."
Now, a deep ditch is a very big hole,
and which means that sometimes when you get into the ditch,
you're not able to pull yourself out, right?
And so sometimes you fall into a deep ditch,
and sometimes you're not able to get out.
So sometimes it can even go to the point of death.
You can get a venereal disease,
you can get some type of sickness
that can cause you to fall into this ditch,
or you may not be able to get out.
And it says an estranged woman is a narrow pit.
Turn your bowels to Proverbs 31.
Proverbs chapter 31, Proverbs 31.
So we have King Lamuel's mom talking here.
And obviously this is a Father's Day sermon,
but I believe that obviously King Lamuel's mother
gave this advice,
but I don't believe that it just came just from nowhere.
It just, you know, sometimes we can get information,
obviously from our parents,
we can get it from our fathers,
we can get it from different things,
but the truths here are still the same.
Look down to verse three, it says,
"Give not thy strength unto women,
"nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings."
It is not kings for, it is not kings,
it is not for kings, O Lamuel,
it is not for kings to drink wine,
nor for princes to drink strong drink,
lest they drink and forget the law
and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.
And so here we see the first two things for the most part.
She says this, hey, don't give your,
don't give your strength to women.
And as parents, as the spiritual leaders,
we need to tell our sons,
hey, don't give your strength to women.
And the reason why is because ultimately women can cause you,
it calls a man to basically pervert judgment
and do things that is not comely to what God wants.
And so we need to protect our sons,
we need to protect our children.
And it says, as you keep reading in verse seven,
it says, let him drink and forget his poverty
and remember his misery no more.
And so really the people that are supposed
to "drink wine" is for those that are ready to perish,
those that are ready to perish.
And in all reality, that shouldn't be spoken of us.
As Christians, we have so much to live for.
We have the fact that we have families,
we have the fact that people look up to us,
we have a church, we have a congregation,
we have people that are willing to invest in your life
or you can invest in other people's life
and cause them to grow.
And in like manner, when it comes to the sons,
the daughters as well.
The Bible says in Proverbs 31, verse 10,
turn to Genesis 34, Genesis 34.
Proverbs 31, verse 10, it says,
"Who can find a virtuous woman
"for a price as far above rubies?"
And what this is mentioning here is just,
we need to teach, obviously both of our children,
but we need to teach our daughters
that there's value in them.
There's value in them.
It says, "Who can find a virtuous woman?"
And it kind of compares it to what?
Rubies.
Now, rubies is a precious stone
that's desirable, that people want.
And if I had a bag of rubies here,
and I said, "Hey, this bag of rubies,"
I don't know how much rubies cost individually, per se,
but if there's a bag of rubies,
and I said, "This is worth a million dollars,"
not one of us in here would say,
"Oh, okay," and just throw it, right?
We wouldn't do that, and the reason why
is because we understand that there's value.
But the Bible actually teaches that
for when it comes to women,
we should have the desire for them to be a virtuous woman,
where her value is not the value of rubies,
but the value is actually far above rubies.
So we need to teach, so some of the things
that comes into this is teaching,
as a spiritual leader, is to teach my daughters
how to be a housewife.
And that's not really popular today,
really in today's era, it's just you don't teach her
to be a housewife, you need to teach her
to get out the house and work
and do all these different things.
And sometimes there are certain instances
where that has to take place.
But ultimately, God's desire for them is not to be
out of the house, it's to actually be a keeper at home.
And not only to be a keeper at home,
but to serve her husband and to run his administration
and do the different things that he would have her to do
because she ultimately has joined his family,
become a part of him.
So we have to show them how a successful marriage
looks like and what it entails.
And so we have to show them that, hey,
mom and dad love each other, that maybe mom and dad
aren't perfect, but hey, look, mom and dad
love each other and we're trying to work through everything.
We try to get through things and basically always
put our foot forward.
In Proverbs 31, verse 11, it says the heart of her husband
that safely trusts in her so that he shall have
no need of spoil.
So really we want the husband ultimately to trust his wife
and to be there for him and to have his wife
as a valuable asset to the house, a valuable asset
to his administration.
And sometimes that means that as a woman,
you have to teach our daughters that sometimes they
have to kind of suffer for the husband's sake
in the sense of suffering, kind of giving up the things
that they may want for their husband.
It's not that it's just like one way street where the woman is
always losing.
But in all reality, it's kind of like a two way street.
But suffering because ultimately there's
a vision that the husband has and the wife needs
to basically get on board to make that process seamless.
And we can't just let our children do whatever they want.
I have you at Genesis 31, 34, look down at verse 1.
It says, "And Dinah, the daughter of Leah,
which she bore unto Jacob, went out
to see the daughters of the land."
And as it pertains to the daughters of the land,
the whores of this world, we see a parent
do something that probably shouldn't have happened,
that ultimately shouldn't have happened.
Jacob's daughter ends up going out and seeing
the daughters of the land.
And as a parent, as the father of the house,
you need to be able to tell your daughters no.
You can't do that.
You can't go there.
If you want to see the daughters of the land,
I understand what you want, but we're
going to go to Holdfast Baptist Church.
We're going to go to First Worship Baptist Church.
We're going to go to any of these other independent
fundamental Baptist Church.
And if you want to go see what's out there,
we can go see it in a righteous manner.
We need to teach our children to desire what mom and dad have,
that they have a good marriage, it's successful,
this, that, and the third.
And we need to ultimately not deceive our children.
We need to not deceive our children,
making them think that the life that they're missing out
in the world is actually better than the life
that they have here.
The Bible says wine is a mockery and strong drink is raging,
and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
And so there's a possibility for people in churches
and independent fundamental Baptist Churches
for their children to come out and kind of just say,
well, you know, I feel like I'm missing out.
I don't have much going on.
You know, all I know is I go to church
and I just read the Bible and my parents go to church
and they read the Bible and they serve God.
And they think that they're missing out
and they look at the whores of this world.
They look at the Kim Kardashians
and think that they're having a good time
and think that things are going good for them.
But in all reality on the inside, they're miserable.
They are 100% miserable.
They, you know, they see how they dress,
their tight clothing and these different types of things.
And, you know, they, what they do is they dress like whores.
They dress like whores.
And when you dress like a whore, guess what happens?
Sometimes you get treated like a whore.
Does that make sense?
So you get, when you dress like a whore,
you get treated like a whore.
And when you, when you see these women out here
and you see all these bad things happening to them
and sometimes even unfortunately abuse, you know,
it's, I mean, this is the reason why, like,
you need to be able to, we need to protect our children
and keep them safe from these different types of men
that are out there.
We need to lead our families
in a way that's pleasing to God.
Seven traits of a good husband.
The second one here is loving your husband,
or excuse me, being a loving husband.
Loving your husband here.
Turn your Bible to Ephesians chapter five,
Ephesians chapter five, Ephesians chapter five,
First Peter chapter three, verse seven, it says,
"Likewise ye husbands, dwell with them
"according to knowledge, give honor unto the wife
"as unto the weaker vessel,
"and as being heirs together of the grace of life,
"that your prayers be not hindered."
The Bible teaches that women are to be honored.
And as a husband, that's something that we have to do.
We have to honor our wives.
And the reason why is because, one,
the Bible actually says that they're the weaker vessel.
Now, ultimately, the Bible says they're a weaker vessel,
but it's not saying that they're weak,
it's just saying they're a weaker vessel.
And so we need to give honor to our wives
because of what they do and how they care for us
and take care of us and things like that.
Ephesians chapter five verse 33, look down at 28,
I'm gonna go there right now.
33 says, "Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular
"so love his wife even as himself,
"and the wife see that she reverence her husband."
And in the Bible here, we need to love our wives
and the way that we love them is by obviously
doing the things that they desire,
doing the things that they want as long as it's not sinful,
pleasing your wife, figuring out how to love your wife
and to be there for your wife and to emotionally support her
and provide for her in every aspect of life.
Look down to verse 28, it says,
"So art men to love their wives as their own bodies.
He that loveth himself, he that loveth his wife
loveth himself, for no man ever hated his own flesh,
but nourisheth and cherisheth it,
even as the Lord the church."
And so we see the example of how a marriage should be
as the Lord the church, meaning that,
what did Jesus Christ do for the church?
Did Jesus Christ died on the cross
and was willing to sacrifice himself
and was willing to pay the ultimate price for the church?
And in like manner, that's how men should be.
As the leader of the house, as a loving husband,
you have to be willing to put your life on the line.
And you know, it's not, I don't say that as a cliche
to say, "Oh, you know, I'll put my life on the line."
No, no, I mean that.
If I have to go for my wife and my kids, bye, I'll go.
You know, if I have to sacrifice myself for my children,
for my wife, I will obviously do it.
And the reason why is because,
as fathers, we love our children,
and we want the best for our children,
and we don't want bad things to happen to our children.
Colossians 3, verse 19, "Husband, love your wives,
"and be not bitter against them."
So one thing that, one attribute of a loving husband
is a husband that's not bitter at his wife.
And I don't think that God put this there by accident.
I don't think he was like, oh man,
I just gotta fill some space, you know.
All right, there it is, don't be bitter against your wife.
The reason why he put that there is 'cause it's possible
for a husband to be bitter at his wife.
And you know, as a husband, as a loving husband,
you need to be the bigger person
as it pertains to this issue.
So if there's something that's going on, you need to fix it.
You need to fix that issue in the marriage,
but you need to be the bigger person,
and you need to get over it.
And you need to figure out how to make it work
as the husband in the relationship here.
Turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter three.
Hebrews chapter three.
We need to relish in the fact that we have a wife.
We need to relish in the fact that we need to be happy
with the fact that God saw fit to give us a spouse.
Proverbs chapter five, verse 18, it says,
let thy fountain be blessed
and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
Let her be as the loving kind and pleasant row,
let her breast satisfy thee at all times,
and be thou ravished always with her love.
You know, to be a loving husband,
you need to rejoice with your wife.
You need to love your wife,
and you need to ultimately stay faithful to your wife.
And this is something that actually permeates our culture,
where it's just, we just see constantly
that people are infidelity,
marriage isn't really that big of a deal.
You know, we see people just cheating
and doing all these different things.
And here's the thing, the Bible tells us
that this is a vow that you make before God.
And when you make this vow before God,
you need to keep that vow.
And you know, sometimes, for those singles
that haven't been married, marriage isn't always like,
man, there's no problems in marriage.
If there was no problems in marriage,
it would be a perfect marriage,
which means that that marriage wouldn't need you,
because we're not perfect.
But infidelity, people cheating on their spouses,
people doing these different things,
is not becoming of what a father should be.
A father should be one that loves his wife,
that cherishes his wife, that's there for his wife,
and that he's satisfied with her at all times.
You need to be satisfied with the things that you have.
And one of those is by loving your wife,
as Christ loved the church.
So we're talking this morning about what is it,
or seven traits of a good father,
seven traits of a good father.
So the third trait here is to be an encourager, an exhorter.
You're there at Hebrews 3, you look down at verse 13,
it says, "But exhort one another daily,
while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin."
And so we need to exhort our wives,
we need to exhort our children,
we need to exhort them to love God.
And we need to make serving God not a grievous thing.
And there's so many people, obviously we have to force
our children to go to church with us
because they don't have an option per se,
but you can do things to make it more fun
for your children to go to church.
You can obviously play games or allow them to have
some free time to be able to do the things that they want.
For my family, we have this thing called soul winning treats.
And so when do you get the soul winning treats?
When you get the soul winning treats
after you go soul winning.
And so then they're like,
oh, we're gonna get a soul winning treat, dad.
And they're like, one kid gets a chance
to choose the treat for everyone.
But we have to make things not grievous for our children.
We need to teach them that it's fun serving God.
We need to teach them that it's fun reading the Bible.
We need to teach them that, you know,
the God's commandments are not grievous
and it's actually there for our protection.
Not necessarily because, you know,
God just wants to hinder us
and he just wants to bog this down with all these rules.
Turn your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter four.
1 Thessalonians chapter four.
1 Thessalonians chapter two says,
"Ye are witnesses, and God also,
"how holy and justly and unblameably
"we behave ourselves among you that believe.
"As ye know, how we exhorted and comforted
"and charged every one of you as a father doth his children,
"that ye would walk worthy of God
"who hath called you unto his kingdom."
And so here we have God just kinda telling us
in this epistle here, he has God telling us
that as a father does his children,
and he exhorts them to what?
That you walk worthy of God
who hath called you into his kingdom and glory.
And so as leaders in the house,
as the father in the house,
we need to be able to exhort our children
to righteousness,
exhort them to love the Lord,
exhort them to go to church, et cetera.
There's a need for men today
to be able to exhort their families
and to cause them to grow closer to the Lord
because we live in a godless society.
We live in a society where people
just don't care about the things of God.
We live in a society where people
are flippin' about the things of the Lord,
where they mock Jesus Christ,
but they won't mock Allah, right?
They mock Jesus Christ,
but they won't mock the false heresies of this world.
But, and the reason why is because
they know that this is the truth.
Jesus Christ is the truth.
I don't ever hear anybody use Buddha as a curse word, right?
Buddha's never used as a curse word.
Yeah, I don't even, I've never even heard,
like, only time I hear about Buddhism
is when, like, Pastor Maheno brings it up in a sermon.
'Cause I never, it's like, it doesn't exist.
Hinduism, Taoism, Taoism, Chaoism.
I don't know if those, I'm pretty sure Chaoism is real.
No, I'm joking.
But here's the thing, like,
when it comes to the right things,
the world wants to mock it.
The world wants to mock the right things of the Lord.
So we need to uplift our families.
We need to cause them to grow closer to the Lord.
First, let's look at chapter four, look down at verse one.
Says, "Furthermore, we beseech you, brethren,
and exhort you by the Lord Jesus,
that as you have received of us,
how you ought to walk and to please God,
so ye would abound more and more."
And so when you serve God, when you serve the Lord,
there's blessings that come with serving the Lord.
And when you serve God, there's good things.
There's goodness that comes with serving the Lord,
but you have to have the desire to do those things,
and we need fathers to stand up and kind of tell their kids,
"Hey, look, it's a great thing to serve the Lord.
Look, I'm happy when I come to church.
I'm happy when I go to work.
I was walking home from work yesterday,
and I was like, I don't even know why I had so much energy.
I was just like, "Hey."
I was so happy, and I can't explain why,
but I was just like, "Hey, I'm happy the fact
that I'm able to work and provide for my wife
and provide for my kids."
And obviously, a lot of the energy went away
because I got home and then I was tired
because I worked 12 hours with no break.
Anyway, that's regardless of it.
But I was super happy the fact that I was able to go out
and ultimately serve my family.
Turn your Bibles to Proverbs 24.
Proverbs chapter 24.
Part of being an encourager into your family
is you have to have the right thing to say.
You have to have the right things to say to people
when things are going on with their lives, et cetera.
Isaiah 50 verse four, you're going to Proverbs 24.
Proverbs 24.
Isaiah 50 verse four, it says,
"The Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned,
"that I should know how to speak a word in season
"to him that is weary.
"He waketh, wakenth, morning by morning,
"he wakenth mine ear to hear as the learned."
Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 10,
it says, "The preacher sought to find out acceptable words,
"and that which was written was upright,
"even words of truth."
And so here we have God just kind of saying,
"Hey, look, you need to figure out
"how to say the right thing."
And so when your wife is going through something
as the father, you need to figure out
how to talk to your wife.
And sometimes, you know, maybe like a wife
would get upset at something,
and it's not really the thing that you did
that got her upset.
Because the thing that happened was such a small thing.
But really, there's, behind that one thing,
there's actually all these other things behind.
And sometimes you have to see like,
hey, why is she acting this way?
Now, I'm not talking about my wife, obviously,
'cause my wife never does this.
My wife is perfect.
No, I'm joking.
But I even find myself doing that sometimes.
Like, I'll get upset at something,
and it's just like, why is the fork on the ground?
I hate forks on the ground.
You know, it's like, hey, that happens, right?
I mean, it happens sometimes before it's fall.
I'm like, why did it get on there?
But here's the thing.
It's like, you have to learn how, as a husband,
if you see your wife respond that way,
then what you need to do is just kind of,
hey, you know, I'm not sure what's going on,
but we can always address this a little bit later.
Or just, you know, as a husband, you just suffer
and just say, you know, just let it go.
Just move on from the situation.
Look down at verse 26, verse 24, verse 26.
It says, "Every man shall kiss his lips
"that giveth a right answer."
Now, this can, there's a way you can look at it
as in like getting the correct answer to your question.
But there's another way you can kind of look at this
and say, you know, to get the right answer to a situation.
So sometimes wives just wanna talk about a problem
and they are not interested
in the actual resolution of the problem.
So, amen, brother.
That's a personal testimony.
You know, sometimes God, like sometimes, sorry, excuse me.
Sometimes women don't want the answer to the question.
And it's just like, I'm tired of this.
And for me, I'm just like, oh, that's easy.
Do this, this, and this, done.
Next question, let's move on.
But in all reality, sometimes we have
to be sympathetic with our wives.
And we have to be compassionate with our wives
so that we can say, like, understand that maybe they're
not asking or they're not saying this because they
want an answer.
Because more times than not, it's not like women are dumb.
Right?
Women know the answer to the situation.
If the baby's crying, well, you've got to get the baby
to stop crying, right?
But just the stress sometimes of having
to deal with the baby for 24 hours a day.
You know, the stress of having to discipline
your children all day.
You know, that can weigh on a person.
And so we need to-- as husbands, we
need to allow them to be able to vent to us
and then not necessarily beat them up when they say it.
Not physically.
I just want to throw that out, not physically.
But just verbally just say, oh, you know, that's dumb.
Don't worry about it.
Get over it.
You're not the first woman to ever do this.
But you want to have compassion on her, compassion with her.
And you want to say, hey, or have passion on her.
You know, you want to say, hey, you know, it's OK.
You know, it's fine.
Like, I understand that you're going through a tough time.
But just know you're going to get over it.
And I know I just said, don't say get over it.
But I know that--
I misspoke.
You know, this is not a trial that can't be resolved.
And you know, other women have went through this.
And you know, you're going to get over it
because I know you can do it.
And so kind of encouraging your wife.
Proverbs 15, verse 23, it says, "A man
hath joy by the answer of his mouth.
And a word spoken in due season, how good is it?"
And so understanding how to address your wife,
understanding how to speak to your spouse,
and understanding the right things to say,
how good is it to be able to have a good answer for your wife's
sake, and even for your wife as well?
Obviously, we're not talking about--
Mother's Day was a couple of months ago.
We're on to a better day.
No, I'm joking.
We're on to-- like, as it pertains to Father's Day,
we need to be able to have that.
We're able to give our wives a good answer
so that she feels that you care for her.
She feels that you're important to her.
And a lot of-- for women, a lot of that importance
is by the things that we say, is by the things that we do.
It's very important for women to-- for that as well.
As a man, I just want to be respected at work.
I want to be respected at home.
But women, it's more emotional.
And so there's like a deeper psychological,
Antima formicological type of thing behind, you know?
And so for-- as it pertains to a husband and a trait
that a husband should have, well, it's just that.
A husband should be a loving husband that's
going to be there for their wife,
that's going to love their wife, and going to be an encourager
to her by the things that he says and does.
Number four, being a role model.
And turn your Bibles to Proverbs 22, Proverbs 22.
Being a role model for your children.
Now, what is a role model?
Well, it's a person that looks up to someone else, right?
For your spouse, you want to be a role model
for your spouse on your manner, how you serve God,
how you love God, how you do the things
that are important to God.
And for your children, I have this saying,
I don't know if I came up with it,
or if I just kind of started saying it or not,
but I want to be the man that I want my son to be.
And I want to be the man that I want my daughters to marry.
I'll repeat that.
I want to be the man that I want my son to be.
And I want to be the man that I want my wife to marry.
The type, obviously.
And so I have the desire to exemplify
what a husband looks like for my son,
and I have our sons, Lord willing.
And then I have the example on what my daughter
should look for in a spouse.
And it's very important for you to get that from the father.
And the mom can love the children as much as she possibly
can, but in all reality, it needs
to come from the father, at least in that aspect,
because she just has to see a man as an example for what
a husband should be, or what a father should be.
Matthew chapter 5, verse 14, "Ye are the light of the world,
a city that is set on a hill that cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel,
but on a candlestick, and giveth it light
unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men
that they may see your good works
and glorify your father, which is in heaven."
And so here, the purpose of a candle,
or the purpose of the lights in this building,
is so that we can see one another, right?
But imagine if we, pastor, have all these lights in here,
we have all the lights in the building,
and then we're like, all right, guys,
put the bag over your head, you know, so you can't see.
That would be pointless, that would be stupid.
And so the whole purpose of how we live our lives
is so that our children can ultimately see
how we live our lives,
so that they can see the example that we have for them.
And what that ultimately means is that
we need to not live a double life as parents.
We need to be a consistent Christian.
We need to be a consistent person.
And the reason why is because our children
are looking at us.
Now, obviously, if your children are young
and they're just infants,
you don't really understand exactly
what I'm talking about here.
But there's times where I'll say something
and then I hear my daughter say something.
The same thing that I just said.
And I was like, hmm, shouldn't have said that, right?
Nothing bad, nothing bad, all right?
But, you know, I see that and I'm just like,
man, like, they're listening.
They're paying attention.
Sometimes they're talking to me about things
that are going on in life.
Not in their lives,
but just things that are going on around.
People are like, oh, you hear so and so?
And I'm like, you should know that, you know?
Stop listening, you know what I mean?
But ultimately, we need to not live a double life.
We need to be consistent the same way you are at church,
needs to be the same way you're at work,
needs to be the same way at the store,
which means to be the same way when you get gas.
Look down at verse six in Proverbs 22.
It says, "Strain up a child on the way he should go,
and when he's old, he will not depart from it."
We need to teach our children how to take correction.
And obviously, this verse is referring,
you know, we're training our children
so that when they're old,
they will not depart from the way.
Meaning that as they get older,
you know, if we're installing,
we're telling our children, you know,
truths of the Bible, things in the Bible.
And the goal is for when they get older,
you know, he will not depart from the way
because you've placed foundational blocks in their life.
But we need to teach them how to take correction.
And correction is not always easy to be given,
or taken, excuse me.
And sometimes it hurts.
So if someone tells you you're doing something wrong,
nobody wants to be wrong, right?
And that's my next one, which is ultimately,
we have to teach our children how to be wrong,
how to take correction, how to be wrong.
And there's nothing wrong with being wrong.
You say, what do you mean, Maury?
Well, there's nothing wrong with being wrong
'cause we're all wrong at some point.
We were not independent fundamental
about this when we were born, right?
We did not have KJV tattered on our chest when we were born.
Oh, that's only me?
No, Doug.
You know, we have to learn a lot of these things,
so there's nothing wrong with being wrong.
But what's wrong is when you're wrong,
you don't want to be right.
There's nothing wrong with being wrong,
but when you're wrong, it's wrong
if you don't want to be right,
in the sense of someone tells you the truth
and you just say, "I reject the truth.
I reject what you just said."
We need to teach them how to win.
We need to teach them how to lose.
We need to teach them how to fight.
As a man, we need to teach our children how to fight,
so that they can protect themselves,
protect their children, their family.
And then more importantly, to protect them,
or to teach them how to get up after you get knocked down.
Turn your Bibles to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 2,
2 Timothy chapter 2.
"Be ye followers of me even as I am of Christ."
1 Corinthians 11 verse 1.
We need to be our children's role model.
We need to teach our children the way of the Lord.
We need to teach our children how to serve God.
We need to teach our children by our manner,
by the things that we do, by the things that we say.
Another attribute or a trait of a great father
is to be a mentor to our family, or mentor to our children.
A mentor is an experienced or trusted advisor.
And my heart's desire is to gain the trust of my children
and that they listen to me,
not because I will give them a spanking,
but because they love me.
That's the goal.
And so it becomes to a certain point
where they know that by them disobeying me,
it actually hurts them because they know
that they're disobeying their father
and it's not because there's a punishment that follows.
I want them to tell me things.
I want my children to be open with me,
to tell me what's going on in the life
so that I can help them fix that problem,
fix those problems.
And then obviously, ultimately,
that they trust me and they trust my judgment.
If I tell my daughters, I don't think this is a good guy,
they shouldn't just say, "Oh, I love him," you know,
and not regard what I say.
My opinion should be weighty to my children.
And the reason why is because
I have their best interests at heart.
I have, I care about them.
I want them to spiritually thrive.
And it's not that I don't want them to get married.
I just want them to choose the right person
because this is forever.
So when you're making, thinking about a spouse
and you think about who you're gonna marry,
like this is not just like something that,
oh, well, you know, I'm just gonna choose a wife
and if not, I'll get another one.
No, that's wrong attitude.
According to the Bible, that's a wrong attitude.
That is a bad attitude to have
because ultimately when you get married,
it should be for life forever.
And as a husband, you need to be able
to tell your children that and to teach them that
so that they ultimately can pick a spouse
that's gonna be good for them
because it is forever or it should be forever.
Look down to verse two in second Timothy chapter two,
says, "In the things that thou has heard of me
among many witnesses, the same commit thou
to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.
Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier
of the Lord Jesus, of Jesus Christ.
No, no man that worth entangled himself
with the affairs of this life,
that he may please him whom,
who he has chosen to be his soldiers."
And so here, here we have a fight that we have to have.
And we're, the goal is to be able to teach our children
how to be in this, in the warfare of spirituality
in our spiritual life as we walk in the world.
You know, we need to teach them how to war a good warfare,
how to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Second Titus chapter, or sorry, Titus 2 verse 3,
it says, "The aged women likewise,
that they be in behavior as becometh holiness,
not false accusers, not given to much wine,
teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women
to be sober, to love their husbands,
to love their children, to be discreet chase keepers
at home, good obedient to their husbands,
that the word of God be not blasphemed."
And obviously, this is referring to women per se,
but this is a lot of the times women
can get their information from their husbands
and from their fathers and from their mothers.
And we have these examples of the effect that we should have
on our spouse, so that that not only affects our spouse,
but that actually affects our children as well.
So we need to guide our wives, guide our children in a way
that's going to be holy unto them.
Proverbs 20, verse 5, it says, "The counsel in the heart
of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding
would draw it out."
And we need to be this well where
we're able to give information to our wives and to our children.
And so what that means is that we need to ultimately have
the desire to learn God's word.
And the reason why we need to learn God's word
is so that we have something to dig out or to get out
of the well, right?
So if you have no knowledge of the Bible, well, that's fine.
Because you can always get knowledge.
Because God will give it to you liberally.
But you have to put that effort in to ultimately get
that knowledge from God.
Number six, to be a provider for your family,
to be a provider for your family.
And there's two ways you can look at it.
There's the financial aspect,
and then there's the spiritual aspect.
And I'm gonna talk more so about the spiritual aspect
of being the provider of spiritual things.
Obviously, there's the financial aspect of it,
which is providing for your family.
Turn to Proverbs, turn your Bible
to 1 Thessalonians chapter four.
1 Thessalonians chapter four.
2 Thessalonians chapter 10, it says,
"Even as we were with you, this we command you,
"that if any would not work,
"neither should he eat."
In reference of providing,
in reference to providing for the needs of our family,
well, you need to get to work.
And so you can't be a derelict and not have a job,
and you need to work, provide for your family,
do the things that your family needs so that you can grow,
so that you're able to do the thing,
like have a house and home and food
and these different types of things.
But as it pertains to spiritual aspect of it,
sometimes brother so-and-so in the church
has put in that effort and they're working, right?
They're working, they're laboring
for knowledge of the Bible and you wanna come along
and just take that knowledge from him
and just try to have this pseudo-knowledge
as though you came and got the knowledge yourself.
And we can't be spiritual derelicts
when it comes to our knowledge of the Bible.
1 Thessalonians 4, verse 11, it says,
"And that ye study to be quiet and do your own business
"and to work with your own hands as we commanded you."
Proverbs 21, verse 25, it says,
"The desire of the sloth will killeth him
"for his hands refuse to labor."
And the Bible's teaching us that God wants us
to use our hands to labor.
But, and obviously there's the spiritual aspect of it,
or the physical aspect of it,
obviously to work and to make money,
to provide for our kids,
but the spiritual aspect of this is we need to use our hands
and not allow our hands to refuse to labor
to learn the word of God.
We need to open up that Bible,
we need to read that,
we need to grow closer to God,
we need to meditate on God's word,
we need to think about the things of God.
Proverbs 20 verse four, it says,
turn your Bible to Proverbs 23, 22, 22,
Proverbs 22, Proverbs chapter 22.
It says in Proverbs 20 verse four,
it says the sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold,
therefore shall he beg and harvest and have nothing.
And so when it comes to a spiritual aspect
of being a sluggard, spiritually speaking,
sometimes you need to put that work in so that you
can learn the Bible.
And people always have a desire to say, well, I want something.
Or they have the desire to say that they have a desire
to meditate on God's word.
They want to be able to quote the Bible like Pastor Mejia.
Or he wants the knowledge like Pastor Mejia.
Or you want to be able to be a great orator
as other preachers.
And here's the thing.
You have to learn how to do those things.
You have to have that desire to put that effort in
so that you can learn the word of God,
so that you can meditate and preach these truths.
Where did I have to go?
Proverbs 26, 26.
Oh no, Proverbs 22, look down to verse 13.
It says the slothful man saith,
there's a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
Proverbs 26, verse 13, it says the slothful man saith,
there's a lion in the way, a lion is in the streets.
And here's the thing.
When it comes to spiritually speaking,
sometimes there is a lion in the way, right?
Sometimes there is things that are going on in your life
that can cause you to what?
Not be able to serve God or things like that,
but it's few far in between.
And in general, most houses have what?
Multiple doors, right?
So if the lion's by the front door,
who says that you can't go to the back, right?
There's always a way to get around
the problems that you have.
And sometimes what you'll end up finding out
is you think that there's a lion,
there's a big roar at the door,
but when you go out, it's just a little cat.
It's just a little koala Catholic,
just like barking and yapping,
and just, "Ah, you forgot the Bible."
We gave you the Bible, but here's the thing.
All you gotta do is just walk up to that thing
and it'll just run away.
We just talk to a Catholic, they'll run away,
and the reason why is because they have no truth.
And so sometimes there is a lion,
but you need to get over that lion
by facing the lion head on.
And we can't allow that as it pertains to us as parents,
as fathers, and then the last one is to seek
the salvation for our children.
And this is something that I would say
that you should have a real burden in your heart for.
If you have children and they're not yet saved,
or they're not old enough,
your heart's desire is that they get saved.
And the reason why is because once they understand the law,
like kids in our church,
they get much more than kids in the world.
And so our kids are able to hear so much preaching,
and that age where they potentially can be sent to hell
could be younger for our children
because they know the truth.
They know the things that God has said in his word.
They hear it three times a week by Pastor Mejia
and other pastors.
And we need to have this desire to get them saved.
And so not only have that desire to get them saved,
but to teach people how to get saved
and be consistent as Christians
so that they can be soul winners as well.
And so this morning, my goal was to talk about seven traits
that every father should desire to have.
And if you don't get anything from this sermon,
I want you to get this.
Don't let being a father
or don't let being a father be a light thing to you.
Don't let it be a light thing to you
because it's very serious.
And it's a great honor, it's Father's Day, it's amazing.
You get a chance to have a father and you get gifts.
It's like another birthday, right?
But it's very important that you take your job serious
because your children depend on you.
And as a parent of children,
I depend on the parents of who my children
potentially will marry, I depend on you.
Because I hope that you are raising your child
in a way that's honoring and nourishing,
in the nourishment of the Lord and growing closer to God.
And I pray that you're doing these things
so that our children can get married in the future.
Because we need good people in the world
and we need more families and more babies.
So this is a great job, it's an awesome job,
it's an amazing job that God has given us.
And let's relish in the fact
that God has given us this opportunity.
Let's pray, dear Lord Heavenly Father,
thank you for giving us another day
and Lord we just pray that we go closer to you
and Lord I pray that these seven traits
that they can go into our minds
and we can think about these things
and Lord we just pray that the truths were stated
in a way that is understood
and Lord just thank you for what you give us
and Lord we pray this in your name, amen.
Please turn your songbooks to song number 27.