Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Milford

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 [NLTse]
“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Sermon
Who here is a dad? Do any of you who just raised your hands want to be a good dad? Yeah… God’s the great Dad! And loving Him and being close to Him, I think we can’t help but want to be more like Him: And for us dads that means wanting to be a good dad.
Well, here are some things I’ve gathered together from across the Scriptures and from several “wise ones” around the Kingdom about how to be a truly good dad, like the Lord our Dad…
First,

A GOOD DAD KNOWS GOD AND LOVES HIM. A good dad is a man who knows and delights in God more than anything else! So knowing God is not something that simply pastors and missionaries or church workers should do. Loving God with all our hearts, souls, and strength is the responsibility of all of us, and especially dads.
Let me ask you, dads: Do you know God better than you know the New York Giants (or whomever you cheer for)? Do you know Him better than what you’re working on at work? or your yard? or your car? or your house? or whatever? (Or, at least, are you striving to know God better than you know those things? Do you spend as much time seeking to know Him as you spend time on any of these things?) I’m not sure that many of us can say that. But we need that. And God wants that of us. And we, really, want that of us, don’t we, dads?
As a part of that,

A GOOD DAD KNOWS GOD’S VOICE AND TRUSTS HIM, spending time reading the Bible to gain a deep understanding of God’s Word and getting to recognize God’s will and ways there, and committing wholeheartedly to living according to God’s commands as a way of showing Him our love and showing our kids and those around us that we love Him.
This includes apologizing to God and asking for and accepting His forgiveness when we fail and recognize sin in our lives, and asking for His grace so we might love Him better and more faithfully.
Deuteronomy 6 also tells us that

A GOOD DAD TEACHES THE FAITH TO HIS CHILDREN AND DRAWS HIS FAMILY TO CHRIST
Now, Moses isn’t just talking to dads in this passage, but it is surely true for us dads. And I know that some of you men may say, “But my wife is smarter, and she understands the Scripture far better than I do.” But our responsibility, dads, is not to be God for our family but only to lead our family to God. We don’t have to do it all! Maybe all we’re actually doing is getting everybody together saying, “Alright kids, let’s talk about this morning’s sermon,” or “we’re going to read some of the Bible together right now.” And then perhaps we pray, and then let others pray, and then maybe we have someone read a couple verses from the Bible, and then discuss what was read and try to explain things together along with our wives, and commit to try and get answers for those questions we didn’t know the answers to. Dads, we don’t have to do everything, but God is calling us to lead: To get prayer, Bible reading, and spiritual discussions started.

Not only that but our kids need to see an example of Christ in us, dads. Paul says to his spiritual children (in 1 Corinthians 11:1), “Imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.” Dads, until by faith we are following after Jesus ourselves, we cannot be godly examples for our own children. Only when we are living for and seeking to imitate Jesus in our thoughts, attitudes, and actions can we properly train and disciple our kids. And raising our kids to know God as their Father and to follow Christ themselves is the heart of what it means to be a good father!
Moses goes on to tell us that

GOOD DADS DO WHATEVER IT TAKES, including talking about God all the time, wearing special things that will remind us of the Lord, and even putting things up around our homes and cars and workspaces to help us keep God on our minds, and to help remind us of being a good man and a good husband and a good dad and a good worker and a good minister and a good friend and a good neighbor. Whatever it takes!

To close, dads, I’d like to tell a story, and then end by adding one last characteristic of being a good dad the way that our Father in Heaven is such a good Dad to us.
Right around the time when I was born my dad got a job with Chrysler Corporation. We lived in this great house in Massachusetts for a year or two, and then he got transferred. And so we moved to another great house in Massachusetts for another year or two, and then he got transferred to Florida.
His job meant that he got to bring home all the latest and greatest new cars that Chrysler, Plymouth, and Dodge were putting out at the time! And we lived in Florida for a year or two, and I made some good friends, and then he was transferred to another place in Florida for a year or two, and I made some more good friends there. And then he got transferred to Michigan…

And Dad was climbing the ladder. He was making it! He was doing well and we were doing well. But while in Michigan he and my mom realized that continuing to move around would always be a part of his moving up in Chrysler: In a house and a community and neighbors and friends for a couple of years; and then needing to move on to another house and community and neighbors and friends, and again and again and again. And so he quit. And we moved to Maryland, where my mom had some family. And though we moved around several times even while we were in Maryland, it was always around the same community, and we kept our same neighbors and schools and friends.

I didn’t realize it then, but my dad chose being a dad in making that decision. I was seven at the time – so it’s been forty-plus years – but to the best of my knowledge he has never since had the level of financial security or success he had while he was with Chrysler. But he chose my mom and my brothers and me in making that decision, and he changed our lives for the better, and he let us know that we were what was important to him.

And now, though it’s not in our reading from Deuteronomy this morning, here is one last characteristic of a good dad that’s in the likeness of our great Dad in Heaven:

A GOOD FATHER LOVES HIS CHILDREN UNCONDITIONALLY
Now “unconditionally” is a huge word. “Unconditionally” means that a dad’s love cannot be earned and that his treatment of his kids does not change depending on what they can offer him in return. I know that some fathers want their kids to be something or accomplish something to make dad look good or feel good in order to love them. But dad’s, that puts our focus merely on ourselves and on what we can gain from our kids, rather than simply unconditionally loving our children.
In the Bible I think of the father of “the prodigal son” who, though his son had treated him so badly, seems to have always kept an eye out in the hopes of his son’s return (Luke 15:20). And when the young man finally did return, the father didn’t judge the son or force him to earn back his favor, love, and approval. He simply embraced him and threw a great party for him (Luke 15:21-24). That father could do this because his love for his son wasn’t based upon what his son could do for him but simply and strictly upon the fact that he was his son. Such a great picture of unconditional love.