Be with him now, please just fill him with your spirit
and please bless the preaching of your word
and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Okay, we're in Genesis chapter 18.
Look down at your Bibles 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 had spoken of him.
And what I'm gonna preach on this morning
is awesome dads in the Bible, awesome dads in the Bible.
And I wanna talk about some particular dads
in the Old Testament and some in the New
that we would look at their character,
we would look at their attributes and characteristics,
the qualities that they had and say,
wow, this guy's awesome.
I wanna be a dad just like this person here.
Now, considering that it's Father's Day,
that's the reason I wanna preach on this.
And we wanna look at some other characteristics
and exploits that these great men did
to become a great father.
And of course, we wanna add these virtues to our lives
in order for us to become better dads, better fathers.
The Bible tells us in Proverbs 17,
you stay there in Genesis chapter 18,
it says children's children are the crown of old men
and the glory of children are their fathers.
What is that telling us?
It's basically saying that children look up to their dads.
It's important to be a godly father
because of the fact that we are the glory of our children.
We are the example that we put forth for them
of who they're gonna be when they grow up,
what character they're gonna have,
how much they love the Lord.
It's really based upon our example that we show unto them.
And so that's why we wanna look at some of these examples
that we see in the Bible.
And of course, we know the most awesome dad
that has ever existed is God the Father, right?
God the Father is the best dad there is.
He's the best father there is.
And we know there's various reasons why he gave his son
to die on the cross for our sins.
The Bible tells us that every good gift
and every perfect gift coming from above
from the father of lights in whom there is no shadow
of turning nor variableness, the Bible tells us.
And so we know that God the Father
is the greatest father there is.
As a father pitieth his children,
so the Lord pitieth them that fear him, the Bible says.
And God pities us and he shows mercy to us.
He's long suffering to us.
And the Bible often will refer to God.
For example, Paul, when talking about God the Father,
says Abba Father, right?
Which basically means father.
And so we see there that we have that relationship
with God the Father if we are children of God.
And the way we become children of God
is by believing on Jesus Christ.
But as many as received him to them gave you power
to become the sons of God,
even unto them that believe on his name.
And the reason I wanna mention that is because,
sometimes Christians, if they didn't grow up with a dad,
they didn't have a father in the home,
this day can often become difficult for them
because they say, well, I didn't have a dad.
I didn't even grow up with a dad
or my dad didn't fulfill his responsibilities
or my dad wasn't there for me.
Well, if you're saved, you have God as your father.
You have the greatest father ever
and that is God the Father.
So we have no room to say, well, my dad didn't do this.
My father didn't do this.
My dad wasn't there for me.
Well, you know what God is
and he'll never leave you nor forsake you.
Don't have this victim mentality to say,
well, I didn't really have that physical dad in my life.
Yeah, but you have a spiritual father who is better, okay?
And so just wanna put that out there.
God the Father is the greatest father that has ever existed.
And let me give you some dishonorable mentions
before we get into the actual good dads in the Bible.
Let's talk about some of the bad dads in the,
because look, there's some pretty bad dads in the Bible.
And look, they were spiritual.
They loved the Lord, but they made a lot of mistakes, okay?
Think about this.
How about Saul?
He pretty bad dad, okay?
He raised Jonathan and Jonathan disobeyed his father.
How about Samuel?
Samuel was a man of God, right?
But yet his children didn't necessarily
turn out for the Lord.
How about Eli?
Eli was a prophet of the Lord
and he raised two reprobates,
Hophni and Phinehas, okay?
Gluttonous reprobate false prophets who were wicked.
And the Bible actually calls them,
though they call them the children of the sons of Eli,
it also says that they're the sons of Belial,
which means the sons of the devil.
He raised little devils, unfortunately.
David, I mean, the man after God's own heart.
This is a guy who wrote the book of Psalms.
We look to him as an example
as being a man who loved the Lord.
He was a man after God's own heart.
We look to him as an example of godliness,
but he was a terrible father, though.
The guy was a terrible father.
I mean, look at the sons that he raised, right?
Absalom being probably one of the most famous ones
that really turned against his own father.
I mean, many mentions of David's lack of leadership
in his own home.
Of course, he did raise a good son, which is Solomon,
and Solomon ended up prospering and doing well.
But there's so many other ones that we can mention,
but we don't want to get negative this morning.
I just want to let you know
that there's imperfect men in the Bible,
and so don't feel bad if you think to yourself,
well, I love the Lord.
I just haven't done a great job as a father,
where you can still be an honorable person before the Lord
if you love the Lord and you're willing to change.
You're willing to change these things
and correct these things in your life.
We can do that, okay?
Now, let me give you a disclaimer
before we get into these awesome dads in the Bible.
If you feel as though your dad
hasn't obtained these attributes, okay,
if you feel like, well, this isn't my dad,
what you're gonna talk about,
my dad doesn't do this, my dad doesn't do that,
hey, you should still honor your father, no matter what,
because the Bible doesn't say,
hey, honor your father and mother
as long as they love the Lord,
as long as they meet up to these expectations,
as long as they do these things.
No, the Bible says just honor them, okay?
Honor thy father and mother.
The Bible tells us that we should honor them and love them
and reverence them and respect them,
regardless of where they fall short in, okay?
So no matter what they've done,
if they haven't attained
to these specific attributes and qualities,
you should not have this attitude to say,
well, because they didn't, I'm not gonna respect my dad.
There's a wicked generation out there
that hates their parents, okay?
They despise their mother, they despise their father,
they disrespect them, they mouth off to them,
they don't show them any respect, and that's wicked, folks.
We as children of our parents
should respect and honor our parents
to the best of our abilities
in spite of what they've done, okay?
In spite of the fact whether they were present or weren't,
whether they fell short as a parent or not,
God has commanded us to honor them still, okay?
So let me just give you that disclaimer.
If your parents have not attained to these attributes,
this is not for you to say,
well, I'm not gonna honor them then, you know what I mean?
I don't have an Abraham as my father,
I don't have a so-and-so as my father.
Yeah, but you have God as your father
and he's commanded you to honor your parents, okay?
Now, if you do have parents
that have some of these qualities,
you should do a backflip or something, okay?
If they're in church, they're reading God's word,
they're soul winners, they obey the Lord, they love God,
they're seeking, they're trying their best
to raise their children for the Lord,
you should be happy about that.
You should be excited and not take it for granted, okay?
Well, yeah, but they're not perfect though.
Yeah, but they're in church.
If they're in church and they're reading God's word
and they're striving to do the best they can
to be a godly parent, man, that's like the best thing ever.
That's better than a million dollars.
That's better than winning the lottery.
That's better than all the treasures
that this world can offer to have a parent inside of church.
And I guarantee you, there's plenty of people in our church
that would love to have their mom and dad
in church like you do.
Amen.
They would love to have at least one parent in church
like you do, right?
So don't take it for granted.
Thank God that you have a parent who's at least striving
to live a life that's honorable unto the Lord.
Now, the last thing, the last disclaimer
that I wanna make is dads,
we should seek to add these qualities to our life, okay?
So as we're listening to this,
as we go over these attributes,
as we look at these qualities of these men,
if we're lacking in these areas,
we need to make up for it, okay?
By walking with the Lord,
making sure that we're doing things
that are pleasing unto God.
Stay there in Genesis chapter 18,
awesome dad number one, Abraham.
Why was Abraham awesome?
I'll tell you why, because he was a friend of God.
Now, there's a lot of people out there
that wanna claim that they're friends of God.
A lot of people out there that wanna make it seem,
oh yeah, me and God, we got this good relationship,
and we're cool, me and the man upstairs,
and we got something going on, you know what I mean?
He understands me, I understand him, poppycock.
It's foolishness.
Folks, the Bible says in order to be a friend of God,
you have to obey Jesus.
That's what the Bible tells us, okay?
Abraham is often, by the way,
referred to as the father of faith, all right?
And this is due in part to the fact
that from a spiritual perspective,
all believers are spiritual descendants of Abraham.
Let me read to you from Romans chapter number four,
it says, therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace
to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed,
not to that only which is of the law,
but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham,
who is the father of us all.
As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,
before him whom he believed, even God,
who quickened it to dead and called it those things
which be not as though they were,
who against hope believed hope,
that he might become the father of many nations
according to that which was spoken.
So obviously we understand that we're spiritually descended
from Abraham and he's a great spiritual father,
but you know, he was also a great physical father as well.
Okay?
You say, who was his son?
Isaac.
You know, when we think of the spiritual fathers
in the Bible, it's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
You know what?
Abraham did a great job teaching Isaac
and Isaac did a great job in teaching Jacob
and Jacob became Israel,
who produced the 12 tribes of Israel.
Okay?
So he was a great physical father
and what made him great was the fact
that he was a friend of God.
Now let me give you a bit of a background story
what's going on in Genesis 18.
We're in what's called gay pride month, okay?
You guys understand that?
No, we're not.
We're not, I'm saying the world is, okay?
And if you want gay pride history, just read Genesis 19.
Amen.
Let me just throw that out there, okay?
Genesis 19 teaches gay pride history
and it shows you what God thinks of sodomy.
I know it's a Sunday morning, we got some visitors here,
but you know, you knew our church got bombed, okay?
I'm just joking.
I'm not joking about the bomb, we did get bombed.
But Genesis 19 is what God thinks of sodomy, right?
So let me give you a better, look,
a lot of people wanna stray away from Genesis 19
and not talk about it because it's so controversial,
you know, oh, we don't wanna preach that today
and all these things, but here's the thing folks,
it actually happened.
God came down to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah
because of their wickedness, that's true, okay?
That actually happened.
Now here's the thing, prior to that,
he came to this earth, okay?
He was kind of doing two birds with one stone
because he was actually taking care of Sarah and Abraham
because he was gonna fulfill the promise
that he made to Abraham that he was gonna give him a son.
And then since he's already down here, right,
he's like, well, you know, I gotta go destroy
Sodom and Gomorrah while I'm here.
You know, you don't wanna go to a city
and just do one thing, you gotta do a couple things
while you're there, I mean, you're only there.
You understand?
You know, you can't just come to a city and say,
I'm just gonna take care of one errand.
Hey, if Costco's there, you know,
if that favorite restaurant of yours is there,
you should visit that too.
Just take care of a couple things while you're there,
you know, and so that's what God is doing.
He came to this earth because he's basically
letting Sarah and Abraham know,
hey, you're gonna bear a child, okay?
Of course, did we know that to be Isaac?
And then he's about to leave to go destroy
Sodom and Gomorrah, and that's where he leave off.
And look at verse 16.
And the men rose up from thence and looked towards Sodom,
and Abraham went with them to bring them on their way.
So, you know, they were fellowshipping,
they were eating together, just talking with one another.
Verse 17, the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham
that thing which I do?
Now, what is he talking about?
He's talking about what he's about to do in Genesis 19.
He's like, should we tell Abraham
what we're about to do right now?
Should I tell him that I'm about to rain fire
and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah?
Should we hide it from him?
You think he can take it?
You think he can handle this truth?
Verse 18, 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 had spoken of him.
So he's basically saying, you know what?
We should tell Abraham what we're gonna do,
because Abraham is gonna take what I say
and he's gonna teach his children these things as well.
That's what he's saying, right?
He says, shall I hide the thing from Abraham
which we're going to do?
And he says, I know him.
He's gonna command his children and his household.
They shall keep the way of the Lord
to do justice and judgment, and that the Lord
may bring upon Abraham that which he had spoken of him.
He's like, I'm gonna reveal this secret to Abraham
because I know that he loves the law of God.
I know that he loves my word, and he's not gonna
be offended by it, okay?
Now, what did he do?
He told Abraham what he was gonna do,
and Abraham in his compassion wanted to say,
well, you know, what if there's 50 righteous people there
and we see that being carried out there?
And God in his mercy said, yeah, if there's 50 righteous,
40 righteous, 30, if there's 10 righteous,
I won't destroy it, but obviously,
Sodom and Gomorrah was not even filled
with 10 righteous people, and that's why he destroyed it.
There's actually only one righteous person there,
and that was Lot, okay?
You know, Lot and his daughters who actually escaped,
his wife escaped, but she ended up turning
into a pillar of salt because she turned back,
and so he wants to tell him the secret,
and he does because he knows that what?
Abraham is his friend.
He said, well, that's a little stretch there.
Abraham was his friend.
Well, let me read to you from James chapter two,
verse 21 says, was not Abraham our father
justified by works when he had offered Isaac
his son upon the altar?
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works,
and by works was faith made perfect?
And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith,
Abraham believed God, and it was imputed
unto him for righteousness, and he was called
the friend of God.
Now go to John chapter 15, if you would,
John chapter 15.
So we see that he's an awesome dad
because of the fact that he's a friend of God,
and you know what, when you're friends,
you tell things, you're close friends,
that you probably wouldn't tell anybody else
who's just a regular acquaintance.
Someone who's your best friend,
someone who is a close friend of yours,
you're gonna reveal secrets, right, to them.
You're gonna reveal personal information to them.
Why, because you're close, right?
For example, your spouse should be the closest
person that you have in your life,
and that's why you divulge all the personal
information to your spouse,
because you guys are close like that, right?
Well, God wants us to have that type of relationship
with him, that type of fellowship with him,
that we're a friend of God, and in like manner,
he basically reveals to us his word, okay?
The depths of his word, the deep things of God,
as the Bible would say, okay?
Now let's prove this with some scripture.
John 15, verse 13 says this.
Jesus speaking here says,
"'Greater love hath no man than this,
"'that a man lay down his life for his friends.
"'Ye are my friends.'"
Does it end there?
"'Ye are my friends, if you worship me
"'and praise me in rock music and have all these
"'feely, touchy, religious type of service.'"
Is that what it says?
No, "'Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever
"'I command you.'"
Oh man, that's a strict friendship.
Yeah, it's God.
God's like, you want to be my friend?
All right, just do whatever I tell you to do.
He says, do you want to be my friend?
Yes, God, I want to be your friend.
Okay, do whatsoever I've commanded you then,
and then I'll consider you to be my friend.
I don't know, I mean, I can't really do that
with my friends here.
Yeah, but this is God, though.
These are his stipulations in order to have friendship,
in order to be close to the Lord,
in order to draw nigh unto God,
in order to be a friend of God,
we need to obey his commandments.
So no, this whole thing of, well, you know,
me and the man upstairs, we have something going on,
we're friends, and he understands me, I understand him.
It's stupid.
It's not found in scripture, it's not biblical.
Because Jesus actually said, no, you have to do
whatsoever I've commanded you if we're gonna be friends.
Okay, he says, henceforth, look what it says, verse 15.
Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth,
but I've called you friends for all things
that I've heard of my Father, I have made known unto you.
So guess what, Abraham was not just a servant,
he was a friend.
And how do we know that?
Because he made known unto Abraham the thing
which he was going to do to Sodom and Gomorrah, okay?
And I don't know about you, but as a dad,
I don't want to just be a servant,
I want to be a friend of God.
I want to be able to read the Bible,
understand the deep things of God,
I want God to be able to entrust me
with biblical information, to entrust me
with the deep truths of the Bible,
because he knows I'm gonna teach them to my children.
He knows, you know what, I'm gonna reveal this
unto Bruce Mehea, because I know he's gonna command
his children after him, I know he's gonna show
his children the way of the Lord,
I know he's not gonna stand in judgment
of God's commandments, I know he's gonna teach them
diligently to his household.
And this is why Abraham's awesome,
because God entrusted him with information,
sacred information, he entrusted him with the plans
to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.
He wasn't going around telling everyone this,
I mean he doesn't need to.
God doesn't need anybody's permission
to destroy any city, right?
He doesn't need anyone's permission.
He doesn't even need to divulge it to anybody.
I mean, a lot of the destructions that have taken place
even after the Bible in this world,
God never told anybody he was gonna do it,
he just does it.
Pompeii, he just did it.
He just did it, he doesn't need to consult with anybody
of the judgment that he's gonna bring upon.
So it's something special, the fact that he was willing
to tell Abraham this.
Okay, and look, he could have just walked away and say,
hey, enjoy that sun, I'll see you in a couple years,
you know, we'll catch you later, we got some errands
we gotta run, you know, and just head over there.
But he didn't do that, he said, you know what,
maybe we should tell Abraham what we're gonna do.
Maybe we should tell Abraham what we're gonna do
and the destruction that's gonna come upon Sodom and Gomorrah
because I know that he loves my commandments,
he loves my word, he's not gonna stand in judgment of it,
and he's my friend.
So Dan, let me just say this, strive to be a friend of God.
Strive to be a friend of God.
He said, well, how do I do that?
By obeying God's commandments.
He said, what are God's commandments?
Well, the commandments are found in the Bible, okay?
And it's not just the 10 commandments
that some people would like to just say.
The Bible's filled with commandments, okay?
And our job as fathers is to scour the Bible,
learn the word of God, read it, you know, memorize it,
think upon it, so that we know what God requires of us
as fathers, you understand?
And look, one of the things that God requires of us
as fathers is to love our wives
as Christ also loved the church.
He requires that of us, that's a commandment
that God gives to us, did you know that?
He says, I command you to love your wife
as Christ also loved the church.
And look, folks, this doesn't just mean, well, I love you.
Check that off the list.
Check that off the task list.
I just wanna say I love you today.
No one says to love your wives
as Christ also loved the church.
I mean, it's basically dwelling with them
according to knowledge and loving them affectionately,
providing for them, taking them out to, you know,
having dates with them, buying them flowers, roses,
treating them well, you understand, loving them.
Hey, raising your children in the nurtured
and the admonition of the Lord.
God requires that of you, okay?
God requires for you to be in church.
How about that?
He requires for you to be in church, dad,
so you can be an example unto your children.
And in fact, you know, if there's no fathers
that are right with God in church,
the church will just completely fall apart.
Because a strong male figure in the church
is like the backbone of the church.
It's needed in church.
You know, a lot of times, you know,
guys don't wanna go to church
because they think church is for ladies.
Like, church is for women, I don't wanna go there.
It's all feely feely.
The guy's giving a motivational speech up there.
He looks like he's trying to seduce the people
when he's talking to them, you know,
and that's why churches often are filled with ladies.
Because the guy who's running the show, you know,
is like a lady sometimes.
It's true.
And so, a real man doesn't like that.
They go to something like that,
and he's just like, what's up with the smoke?
What's up with the purple light?
What's going on with this soft sermon?
You know, but if men actually knew
what the Bible actually says,
the Bible's very attractive to men, okay?
You know, they're very attracted to the truths
of God's word, they're attracted to hard preaching,
they're attracted to God's church,
and so it's important that we, as God's men,
become a friend of God so that we can be a blessing
to our family, you understand?
Fathers who are obedient to the word of God,
do whatsoever God has commanded him to do.
Psalm 25, verse 14 says,
the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him,
and he will show them his covenant.
Proverbs 3, 32 says,
or the froward is an abomination to the Lord,
but his secret is with the righteous, the Bible tells us.
Go to Jeremiah chapter 35, if you will,
Jeremiah chapter 35.
Abraham was an awesome dad because of the fact
that he was a friend of God, he obeyed God's commandments.
And look, folks, if you're new,
if you're just learning the Bible,
you're gonna hear some things and read some things
that you didn't really know were in the Bible.
And you know what?
What if Abraham, after God told him
when he was gonna do the Sodom and Gomorrah,
is like, oh God, you know, I don't know about that, Lord.
Man, don't you love everyone, though, God?
I mean, like, this seems kinda harsh.
Now, notice that Abraham was not sympathizing
with the Sodomites, he was trying to salvage who?
The righteous, right?
And so, you know, what if he told them that?
God wouldn't have even told them, divulged all that,
the secrets and information of the Bible, of his commands.
Why, because he knew that Abraham couldn't handle it.
We wanna be men who can handle the truth, right?
We wanna be the type of men that when the truth
is given to us and we have biblical references for it,
that we take it.
Not only do we take it, we love the truth.
No truth is too hard for us to swallow.
Why, because if it's God who's saying it,
we accept it, we love it.
You know, the judgments of the Lord are perfect,
the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.
We want God to know that we esteem his word
no matter how radical it is in the eyes of the world.
You know, what we preach, what we read from God's word
may be offensive and radical to this world,
but God wants us to look at it and stand in all of his word
to love the word of God and say, Lord, this is great,
this is wonderful, this is your word,
these are your commandments, I wanna be your friend, okay?
You know, and a friend is not someone
who's ashamed of you, right?
Right.
Ain't that right?
Amen.
Your friends, if you have actual friends, you know,
are people who are not ashamed to be around you.
They're not afraid to be associated with you.
You know, when the other buddies come around,
they don't like, you know, start talking trash about you
and put you down or, you know, they hang around you
because, you know, they like you, right?
I hope so, that's the case, right?
You know, you have friends and true friends
are those who love you for who you are,
they love your character, they love your personality,
they just wanna be around you, okay?
Well, in like manner, you know,
that's what God wants as well, you understand?
Awesome dad number two, Jonadab.
Jonadab is another awesome dad in the Bible, why?
Because he produced an obedient progeny.
Look at Jeremiah 35 and verse number one.
We're gonna look at a family called the Rechabites, okay?
Look at verse number one, it says,
the word which came into Jeremiah from the Lord
in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah,
the king of Judah saying,
go into the house of the Rechabites and speak unto them
and bring them into the house of the Lord
and to one of the chambers and give them wine to drink.
Now, let me explain to you what's going on here.
Judah, God's people, they're just being
completely disobedient to God's word
and God's trying to get them to repent as a nation, okay?
He wants them to get right with God,
he wants them to get back into the house of the Lord
to do right and they're unwilling to do this.
They just don't wanna get right with God,
they wanna keep living in covetousness and fornication
and doing all these wicked acts and so,
what God is doing here is he's giving an example.
He's saying, look, I want you to go to this specific house
called the house of the Rechabites
and what I want you to do is I want you
to give them wine to drink and when it says wine,
it's not referring to alcohol, okay?
Now, today when we use the word wine,
we're referring to alcohol, right?
That's what's typically referred to as alcohol, as wine
but that's not what this is referring to.
Wine here in the Bible is just referring to juice, okay?
In fact, you won't even see, I think juice
is only mentioned once in the Bible.
Most of the times, most other times,
when the Bible talks about juice, it refers to it as wine
and we obviously understand that this is not referring
to alcohol because God would never give anyone
alcohol to drink.
He's like, go tempt him with alcohol, you know?
God cannot be tempted with evil,
neither tempteth he any man.
That's what the Bible says, okay?
And so he says, go give them wine to drink
and he's kind of doing an experiment here
to kind of illustrate a point that he's trying to make.
Verse three, then I took Jazaniah, the son of Jeremiah,
the son of Jabbazaniah and his brethren and all his sons
and the whole house of the Rechabites
and I brought them into the house of the Lord
and to the chamber of the sons of Hanan,
the son of Igdaliah, a man of God,
which is by the chamber of the princes,
which was above the chamber of Mesaiah,
the son of Shalom, the keeper of the door
and as set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites,
pots full of wine and cups and said unto them,
drink ye wine.
Now, drinking juice is not a sin in the Bible, okay?
In fact, it's considered a luxury in the Bible, okay?
It's not considered a sinful thing,
it's considered something of abundance,
something of luxury and he's telling them,
drink this, verse six, but they said,
we will drink no wine.
For Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our father commanded us
saying, ye shall drink no wine,
neither ye nor your sons forever.
Neither shall you build houses nor sow seed
nor plant vineyards nor have any,
but all your days ye shall dwell in tents
that ye may live many days in the land
where ye be strangers.
So what do we see here?
Jeremiah comes to these people and says,
hey, here's some Kool-Aid.
You drink some Kool-Aid, man and they're just like, no.
And you think to yourself, why?
He says, because my grandfather commanded our father
not to drink wine and he's commanded us to drink wine,
therefore we will not drink wine all the days of our life.
Now, this is not a command in the Bible, right?
But it was still right because of the fact
that parents have the authority to command their children
to do things even if they're not biblical, okay?
You say, well, that sounds kind of crazy.
No, I didn't say to commit acts of sin.
I'm talking about standards here, okay?
You know, parents have the right to say,
go throw out the trash.
You know what, kids can't be like,
well, that's not in the Bible.
I don't see that in the word of God.
And you say, do you see spankings in the word of God?
Go throw out the trash.
Parents have the right to command their children.
And here's the thing, the Bible tells us this.
So look, God expects for children just to obey
the word of God, obviously.
But you know what, he also expects children
to obey their parents even in things
that don't pertain to the word of God.
Because I don't know if you noticed,
but the vast majority of this world are not born Christians.
They don't know the word of God.
You know, my parents, my mom,
she didn't know the word of God growing up,
but she still commanded me to do things
and it was right for me to obey her.
It's right for you to obey your parents,
even in things that don't pertain to the word of God.
Well, you know, my dad says I gotta be in
by six o'clock or whatever.
I can't go out on Saturday evenings
because I don't see that in the Bible.
Yeah, but you know what I do see in the Bible?
Obey your parents.
So if your mom and dad tells you to do something
and you're scouring the Bible to find that commandment,
you don't find it, well too bad.
The command is to obey your parents
and the Lord for this is right.
Because they know better, right?
Your parents know better.
Yeah, but they're not Christians.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say obey your parents
as long as they're Christians.
Doesn't say obey your parents
as long as they know the word of God.
It just says obey your parents.
Now the exception to that rule would be
unless your parents are trying to cause you
to do something sinful,
you know, something abominable, something sinful.
At that point, obviously we understand
that we're not to obey that, okay?
But here's the thing,
I don't think that's gonna happen very often.
The majority of the times
when your parents are commanding you to do something,
it's not something that's strictly found in the Bible
but it's something that's strictly found in their rule book
and therefore you should obey that.
I mean the Recubites did and you know what?
Jonadab was such a great grandfather,
he had so much influence over his progeny
that even his great grandchildren
were still obeying a standard
that he had two generations before.
Think about that, that's pretty amazing.
He goes on to say in verse number eight,
thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab,
the son of Recub, our father,
and all that he hath charged us,
to drink no wine all our days,
we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters,
nor to build houses for us to dwell in,
neither have we vineyard nor field nor seed,
but we have dwelt in tents and have obeyed
and done according to all that Jonadab,
our father, commanded us.
So drinking juice was not the only thing
that he forbade his kids from doing.
He says, look, I don't even want you guys to build houses.
We're gonna live in tents all the days of our life.
He thinks to himself, this is rough.
Man, isn't this abused?
Call CPS on this guy or something, right?
But if you know the story,
it actually works out to their benefit
because Judah, where all the houses are,
is being destroyed.
They're being conquered.
The only ones who are not being conquered
are those dwelling in tents.
So who are the only ones who are not affected
by the invasion?
The Recubites.
So two generations before, when Jonadab came and said,
hey, don't drink wine, you're dwelling in tents,
don't plant vineyards, don't build houses,
obviously he knew something
was gonna happen in the future.
And because of that, his coming generation,
his progeny, they were spared of the judgment of God
because they were not dwelling in houses.
Now, this is not a commandment
for all of us to dwell in tents.
I have no desire whatsoever to dwell in a tent.
This is just simply an example of what he's saying here.
Verse 11 says, but it came to pass
when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land
that we said, come, let us go to Jerusalem
for fear of the army of the Chaldeans
and for fear of the army of the Syrians
so we dwell in Jerusalem.
Then came the word of the Lord into Jeremiah saying,
thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
go and tell the men of Judah
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
will you not receive instruction
to hearken to my word, saith the Lord?
The words of Jonadab, the son of Recub,
that he commanded his sons not to drink wine are performed.
For unto this day, they drink none,
but obey their father's commandment.
Notwithstanding, I have spoken unto you,
rising early and speaking, but ye hearken not unto me.
So what is he saying?
How is it that these people can obey
their great grandfather, the commandment that he gave,
but this nation won't obey me, who's God?
That's what he's saying.
He said, how is it that this family's willing
to obey their great grandfather in something
that doesn't even pertain to the Bible,
and yet this nation's not even willing to obey me?
That's the example he's given there.
Skip down to verse number 18.
And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Recubites,
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
because ye have obeyed the commandment
of Jonadab your father, and kept all of his precepts,
and done according to all that he hath commanded you,
therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
Jonadab the son of Recub, shall not want a man
to stand before me forever.
What is he saying?
You guys will always exist, because you obeyed your dad.
And you know what this teaches me?
You know what I see from this?
Parents who raise obedient children
will ultimately grow up to obey God.
It's fact.
If you raise rebellious children
to rebel against your authority,
they're not only gonna be rebellious
against police officers, against their bosses,
ultimately they're just gonna rebel against God.
So it's better to raise obedient children
so they become good employees, amen.
Not whining and bickering over, I don't like my job,
my boss is so mean to me, he yells at me,
he does this to me, nah, nah, nah.
Folks, it's work.
My boss cusses me out.
So?
Sticks and stones may break my bones,
but words shall never hurt me, okay?
And he's the boss.
Yeah, but my boss does this, and my boss does that,
and I don't like this.
See, folks, that is a major issue today in 2021
where young people don't know how to take correction.
But it stems from when they were younger,
they were not obedient to their authority,
and therefore they're now being obedient
to their earthly authority, their boss,
and then ultimately sometimes
they're not even obedient to God.
They won't obey God's commandments, okay?
We don't wanna be this way.
We wanna be like the Recubites,
where we obey our earthly authority,
and in like manner we obey our bosses.
If the boss says, do this, you don't say,
well, that's not in my department.
That's not my department, I'm not really in charge of that.
Do it!
He's your boss, he's giving you a check for this,
he's paying you, right?
Kinda quiet.
Folks, it's true.
And look, as Christians, we serve our bosses
as unto the Lord, that's what the Bible says.
So when your boss says, go clean out the restrooms,
and it's not in your job description,
you can say, well, I guess God wants me to clean restrooms.
And you go clean the restroom.
I mean, if Jesus were to come down and tell you,
can you go clean that restroom?
You'd do it like that, right?
I mean, I hope so.
Well, that's how he wants you to see it
when you're obeying your boss.
So we see here that Jonadab is an awesome dad, why?
Because he had so much influence over his children,
they respected his leadership so well
that even the generations to come obeyed his standards.
And because of that,
they were able to stand before the Lord forever.
They were spared of a lot of judgment.
Go to Job chapter one, if you would, Job chapter one.
Awesome dad, number one, we see Abraham.
Awesome dad, number two, Jonadab.
Awesome dad, number three is Job.
Or more commonly referred to as Job.
A lot of people are gonna say, Job, the book of Job.
It's actually Job, okay?
I did it too.
Go to the book of Job.
Why was Job an awesome dad?
Because he sanctified his children, okay?
Look at Job one, verse one, it says,
there was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job,
and that man was perfect and upright
and one that feared God and eschewed evil.
And they were born unto him, seven sons and three daughters.
His substance also was 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels
and 500 yoke of oxen and 500 she-asses
and a very great household so that this man
was the greatest of all the men of the East.
I mean, this guy had a lot of money,
had a lot of livestock, he's living in abundance.
I mean, God has blessed him richly, right?
And his sons went and feasted in their houses,
every one his day, and sent and called
for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
So he's kind of like living the life.
I mean, he has all this livestock, all these resources.
He has sons and daughters.
I mean, he is a well-respected man.
The Bible says that God thinks
he's a perfect and upright man.
He fears God, he's chewing evil, he's a great example.
He says in verse number five,
and it was so when the days of their feasting
were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them
and rose up early in the morning
and offered burnt offerings according
to the number of them all.
For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned
and cursed God in their hearts.
Thus did Job continually.
Now go to Ephesians chapter number five, if you would.
Ephesians five.
So what we see is Job, he's perfect and upright.
Perfect doesn't mean sinless,
it just means complete, he's mature.
He loves the Lord, he's successful,
he's raising children, he loves his kids.
And we see that Job is this type of person
that not only cares for his own spiritual wellbeing,
but he also cares for the spiritual wellbeing
of his children.
Because he rises up early in the morning
to sanctify his children and offer burnt offerings
according to the number of them all.
Now the reason they would offer burnt offerings
in the Old Testament was basically
for the forgiveness of present sins, okay?
But I believe when it says that he sanctified them,
it's actually referring to the fact
that he's teaching them the word of God.
Let me prove that.
Ephesians five, verse 25 says this.
Husbands, love your wives even as Christ
also loved the church and gave himself for it,
that he might sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water by the word,
that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish.
So when the Bible says that Job rose up early
to sanctify his children,
I think what he's saying here is
he's rising up early to teach the word of God into his kids,
to sanctify them, to wash them.
Yeah, he offered burnt offerings and sacrifices
for their sins, but before he even did that,
he sanctified them by teaching them God's word.
Now, this is important, okay?
And this is what makes Job awesome,
because you know what Job didn't do?
Well, they'll get that at church.
They'll get that at Sunday school class.
They'll get that by Pastor Mejia.
They'll get that on YouTube.
No, no, no, Job said, I'm gonna sanctify them.
I'm gonna teach them.
Now, I'm sure he congregated in the house of the Lord.
I'm sure he heard the priests preaching the word of God
and teaching the word of God.
I'm sure he did all that because that's required of him.
Otherwise, he would not be a perfect man,
which is complete.
But you know what he also did himself?
He took the responsibility to teach his kids
the word of God.
And dads, that's what we need to do.
Amen.
Now look, I don't mean like you need to go home,
buy a pulpit, and have a service at your house,
have house church, you know?
And you're just like, get right with God, obey Mom,
and you know, you're gonna get cast out,
and you know, and I'm not saying that.
You know, the way the Bible lays out
how we teach our children is in Deuteronomy chapter six.
Okay, we just teach them the word of God
as they rise up, right?
Just like how we did here.
That means as soon as their children rose up,
he would rise up and just talk about the things of God.
The best way to teach the Bible to your children
is just in conversation, right?
When you're in the vehicle, you're on your way to Costco,
you're on your way to visit family members,
you just talk about the Bible.
You don't say, all right everyone,
open up your Bibles to Ephesians chapter number six
real quick to where it says,
Obey your parents of the Lord for this is right.
Title of my sermon this evening.
No, what it's saying is this,
is you should just teach your children the word of God
in conversation, in casual conversation.
Why?
Because, you know, the Bible tells us,
if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.
So you know what that means?
If you're supposed to talk about the word of God,
it means you're supposed to be reading the word of God too.
Right?
Because how are you gonna talk about something
that's not in your heart?
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
You know?
And I'm not saying you can't sit your children down
and say, all right, we're gonna read this,
this is what I'm gonna teach you this.
But you know, the most effective way
to teach your children the Bible
is when you're just working together,
they're cleaning up, and you're just teaching them God's word.
You know, the Bible says this, Bruce.
You know, there's a story in the Bible about this.
You know, God says this about,
you know, you're just teaching them throughout the day.
You're sanctifying them on a daily basis.
Okay?
You're turning off the social media,
you're turning off the YouTube,
you're turning off the things that are distracting,
and you're actually spending time
speaking the word of God into your children.
This is important.
Okay?
Or how about this?
You know, kids are the best eavesdroppers in the world.
Right?
Kids are so nosy as kids in the world.
Kids are just nosy, and they're great at eavesdropping.
I mean, wouldn't you agree?
I mean, some of you guys are good at eavesdropping too,
amen?
Learned it from when you were children.
But kids are just natural eavesdroppers.
So this is what you do.
You talk to your spouse about the Bible.
So that when your children come to church,
they're not telling me about all the issues
you guys are having at church, or at home.
My dad said this to my mom today, you know.
He said they're fighting about this or something, you know.
Instead they'll come to church and talk about
the fact that you guys are talking about the Bible.
Okay?
Let them eavesdrop on a biblical conversation
that you're having with your spouse.
Amen?
Instead of gossiping about people in the church,
why don't you gossip about the Bible?
You know?
And talk about the word of God, sanctify them.
Because you know what you'll do
when you put that into practice?
You're gonna develop a love for the Bible
in the hearts of your children.
And they're gonna love the Bible.
They're gonna think about the Bible.
They're gonna develop a greater desire for the word of God.
You're gonna sanctify them through the Bible, okay?
Don't take Deuteronomy 6 too lightly, it works.
Talk about the word of God as much as you possibly can.
Go to Acts chapter 21 and I'm gonna finish here.
Acts chapter 21.
I'm gonna skim over Awesome Dad number two.
He's still awesome but I'm not gonna talk too much about him.
Joseph, in the New Testament, was an awesome dad.
We're talking about Jesus' stepfather, not his father.
Because Jesus was not his father.
Or excuse me, Joseph was not Jesus' father.
He was his stepfather, right?
But what made him awesome?
Well because he protected his wife and his stepchild.
Think about that.
He took on the responsibility to become, you know,
Jesus' stepfather and to protect them as a child
until he grew up to become the man he needed to be
to have the understanding and knowledge
that he was the son of God
and then carry out his ministry.
You know, not a whole lot is said about Joseph.
You know, the spotlight's not necessarily
put on Joseph very much.
But you know, he was still a great man.
And in fact, you know, I was thinking about this.
Joseph actually kind of pictures
God the Father a little bit.
Because he took a child who wasn't his,
you know, a stepchild, he adopted Jesus as his son,
so to speak, right?
In like manner, God the Father does that to us.
We are adopted in Christ.
We who were not a people are now the people of God
and the children of God.
You understand?
And so, you know, Joseph was an awesome father
because he protected his son.
When people were out to kill his son,
he was willing to go through great lengths
to protect his son, his stepson, Jesus,
you know, from the dangers of these wicked individuals.
And the spiritual application to that is this.
You know, we as fathers need to make sure
we protect our children
from the wicked people of this world.
Remove our children from the bad influences of this world,
from bad relationships, bad friendships,
bad influences, bad entertainment,
wicked entertainment, things that seek
to destroy your children's lives.
We need to be like Joseph and be willing to move,
spiritually speaking, in order to make that happen, okay?
So he's an awesome dad.
And lastly, awesome dad number five is Philip.
Philip in the Bible, Philip the Evangelist.
Why was he a pretty awesome dad?
Well, because he raised virgin daughters
who preached the gospel.
Now, that may not seem awesome to you,
but it's pretty awesome in 2021
to be able to do something like that.
Acts 21, verse eight says,
The next day we that were of Paul's company departed
and came into Caesarea,
and we entered into the house of Philip the Evangelist,
which was one of the seven, and abode with him,
and the same man had four daughters,
virgins, which did prophesy.
Now, this doesn't mean that they were pastors.
It doesn't say which were pastors or pastorettes,
or in Pentecostal churches, pastoras.
Prophesy means to preach.
But it doesn't say that they were preaching in church.
What are they doing?
They're preaching the gospel, they're soul winners.
They're sharing their faith with strangers,
and their friends and family members.
They're preaching God's word.
You know what, Philip did pretty well here.
Because he's raising virgin daughters.
What does that say about Philip?
It says that he protected his daughters
from wicked and evil men who would seek
to take advantage of his daughters.
If they're old enough to be out there preaching the gospel,
that means he's done a pretty good job
over the last couple of years raising them.
To retain their purity,
and do that which is right in the sight of the Lord.
And even aside from that, to love God,
and love people enough to go out and preach the gospel.
It says a lot about Philip.
And let me say this, we should desire
to be as Philip is, or was.
In the fact that we wanna raise our children to be virgins,
up until the marriage altar, right?
To make sure that when they come to the altar,
that they're virgin.
I know that's like a taboo thing to say nowadays,
but folks, it's still biblical.
And we as fathers, we as mothers,
we should have that desire to say, you know what,
I want my son and my daughter to be a virgin
when they come to the altar.
And if that wasn't for you,
if you missed that train in your life,
okay, don't sit, soak, and sour about it.
Just have a vision for your children
to be able to obtain to that.
To say, well, I didn't get a chance to have that,
but I wanna give that to my son and my daughter.
And don't have this guilt trip, well, I didn't do that,
so it would be bad to enforce that upon my children,
you know what I mean, because I wasn't like that.
Folks, the commandment is still there.
We need to protect our children and give them that gift
to say, hey, you can come to the altar as a virgin,
you can come there.
And look, if, you know, for example,
if you have a child that maybe that train has already gone,
well, from here until then, they can remain, right,
abstinent and not go around fornicating
and destroying their life.
We should have this as a goal, that's offensive.
Well, you know, the Bible is just an offensive book
sometimes because it goes against the grain
of common culture of the modern day world
and what the standard is of this world.
The standard is so low in this world
that just saying this just offends the multitudes, okay.
He doesn't care, he didn't care back then.
And look, Philip lived in a pretty wicked era too
because he's living during the Roman Empire.
And the Roman Empire wasn't the lighthouse of morality.
You know, Romans won, folks.
I mean, name the nation that had a chapter dedicated
regarding reprobates, Rome, Romans, right?
It was for the Romans, but he's living during that time
and he was able to successfully raise four daughters
of a virgin, which did prophesy.
What's the lesson today?
The lesson is this, there's some pretty awesome dads
in the Bible and God has put them in here
for our admonition, for our instruction,
so we can desire to attain to that same character
and quality as well.
And if you feel like, well, I've missed that boat,
my dad wasn't here, my dad didn't do that,
well, you know what, you should desire to get married
and be that father then, amen?
You should desire and say, well, you know what,
I didn't have that life, but I'm not gonna whine about it,
I'm not gonna have this victim mentality about it,
I'm gonna be the dad that I need to be for my children
so I can be an awesome dad for my kids.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word
and thank you for the example of these awesome fathers
in the Bible.
Help us, Lord, to attain to those qualities and attributes
and Lord, thank you for being our Heavenly Father in Christ.
We're so thankful that because we believe,
now we have a Heavenly Father who loves us,
you've adopted us as your sons and daughters in Christ
and Lord, you give us good gifts and perfect gifts
all from above, Lord, and we're so thankful
for just the love you shed upon us, Lord,
each and every day and for the loving kindness
that we hear in the morning.
I pray, Lord, that you'd help us to exert that
in the lives of our children as well.
We love you so much, Lord, and we thank you.
Pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.