(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

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.