Becoming God-Like Fathers

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Becoming God-Like Fathers Romans 8:15-17 Becoming God-Like Fathers • God desires that every living person should take their place as His child with a meaningful relationship, full rights and authority in His family and kingdom. • Because of sin in the world, the influence of satan, and our own stubbornness; we have strayed from God and His purpose for us. • However, God has established the earthly family to be a demonstration of His love, desire and instruction of His children. • Fathers have a God-given responsibility to lead their families in a way that models who God is and how He acts toward us, His children. • Praise God, He did not leave us to ourselves to accomplish this task. He has revealed Himself through relationship with us. He has offered to fill us with His Spirit. And He has given us the never-failing Truths of His Word. So How Do We Practically Model God?? 1. Be Available • The entire story of the Bible is a testimony of God pursuing and wanting us! Jesus paints a picture of God as our Father in the story of the prodigal son. The Father was waiting, looking for the returning son, and when He saw him from afar, He ran to his son and embraced Him. • Isn’t it amazing that God is always waiting and wanting to spend time with us. Anytime that we choose to be still and turn our hearts toward Him, He is right their waiting to be with us. • God has the amazing ability to give each of us His full attention anytime that we stop to talk to Him - it’s as if we’re the only person in the world praying to Him at that very moment. Nothing He has to do is more important that spending personal time with us and shaping us to be like Jesus. • Fathers, we need to make ourselves available to our children and disciples. • How can we expect them to come to us when they are really hurt, or in trouble, or questioning serious things in their life if we do not make time to be available for them on a daily basis?

• If we can’t take a few moments to jump on the trampoline, watch their tricks, listen to their endless and punchline-less jokes, and talk about the things they're interested in - how will they feel comfortable to come to us when their lives are falling apart and they need a Father’s wisdom and embrace? • We can cry out to God in desperate times of our lives because we know He’s there and cares about every little detail of our lives everyday. • Luke 18:40 says that “Jesus stopped” His busy plans to give a man his sight when everyone else had rebuked him. As fathers, like Jesus, we must be willing to stop our busy plans to give our children a picture of God’s love. 2. Be Sincere • “Love must be sincere.” Romans 12:9. In this passage the word “sincere” literally means, “without hypocrisy.” God demands that our love for Him and our children must be pure and without hypocrisy. • Our children desperately need to see that our love for God is sincere and the most important thing in our life. If our relationship with God is a Sunday facade, how can we expect them to experience God on a personal level? • On graduation Sunday, Jacob gave us a staggering statistic about the large numbers of seniors that leave the church and the faith when they leave home. • In my opinion, one of the major reasons for this exodus is that they clearly see the hypocrisy of adults who say they follow Christ but live like the world when they're away from the church and their church friends. When we live a double standard, it creates a disdain for church and for God Himself. • Let’ read Joshua 24:14-15 together. • No one makes us serve the Lord and follow Christ, it is a personal decision for each of us. • If following Christ is not worth the sacrifice and effort, then be real and choose not to follow Him, accept the consequences, and let’s make that decision clear to our children and the people around us. • But if we choose to serve God, then let’s be sincere and give Him all of us and every part of our lives as He has required. Let’s demonstrate sincere devotion in church, at the lake, on the sports field, with our speech, with our bank accounts, in business and behind closed doors in the home. • God is always the same whether popular, ridiculed or rejected. Let’s reflect that kind of love and devotion to the children and disciples He’s given us.

3. Be Intentional • “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds…Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 11:18-19 • Our God-given task as Fathers is to lead our children to become mature, productive, and reproducing disciples of Jesus Christ. • This will never happen by accident, the world we live in is continually pulling them away from God and into its destructive and distracted lifestyle. • We must be intentionally focussed on the task God has given us. Our families are our primary disciples. If we live available and sincere lives for God, then He will present daily opportunities to show His truths to our disciples. • Our job is to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, recognize the opportunities, and be obedient to teach the truths of God about every subject to our disciples. 4. Be Humble and Honest • Having a sincere love for God doesn’t mean that we never make mistakes as fathers. But it does mean that when we do, we are willing to repent and be vulnerable before the people God has placed around us. • “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 • If today you feel like you’ve blown it as a God-like father? If you haven’t been available or sincere or intentional, God promises that if you will humble yourself and repent, He will hear you, forgive you, and heal you family. • It’s never too late to be humble and honest with your family; physical or spiritual. Meet you children eye to eye and admit that you were wrong, apologize, and repent before them. Let God do His part to forgive and restore.