Elevate - Modeling God - Father's Day 2024

The lack of the fear of God leads to a disregard for absolute truth. This has caused problems in our world that were once filled with awe and reverence for God. However, fathers have the power to make a difference. Today's message focuses on what it means to be a godly father, and how godly fathers hold the key to the next generation faithfully serving Jesus Christ. The culture tends to minimize the role of fathers, but regardless of past mistakes or what others have done, fathers can make a difference by modeling godliness for their families. The passage in Psalm 112 highlights three attributes of godly fathers: fearing the Lord, being generous and just, and trusting in the Lord. The fear of the Lord is being in awe of His majesty and power, recognizing His hatred for sin, and obeying Him above all else. King David is an example of someone who modeled the fear of the Lord, even in difficult circumstances. Godly fathers have the opportunity to bless and raise mighty The lack of the fear of God leads to disregard for absolute truth that's written on the heart of every man, whether you're saved or unsaved. Romans 1 tells us that, you disregard it. Why? The lack of the fear of God. And so these are all problems in our world that fill the void that was once filled with awe and reverence for God. But dads, we can help. Welcome to Elevate, the radio ministry of Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama. We pray that it builds your faith, helps you to live a life for God that you've always wanted to live, and that it inspires you to be a fully devoted, authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Here's today's message from Neal DiQuatro. Well, let's get into the Word today and let's see what the Word has to say. We're going to honor fathers like we did on Mother's Day. We honored our mothers. And so I have a message tailored for Father's Day. But I'll start with this story. I'll never forget when I came home from the hospital after our firstborn son was born. We came back and I walked into the bedroom and I noticed on the bed there was a small present gift wrapped there. And it was interesting. It caught my attention. It was on the pillow. It was gift wrapped in gold, like gold wrapping paper. And when I opened it up, I obviously was interested to see what it was. It turned out to be a book. And when I read the title, it said, The Authoritative Guide to Being the Perfect Parent. So then I opened it up and light started shining out from it. Okay, none of that is true. Would it be good if that was true? Wouldn't it be good if you got home from the hospital and you had a book sit on your bed and you opened it up and a beam of light came shining out of it that said, The Authoritative Guide to Being the Perfect Parent. Well, it doesn't exist. I'm sorry to burst a bubble for anyone who hasn't had children yet. But it would be wonderful if it did. And fortunately, the Bible at least tells us what goes into being a godly parent. We're going to make mistakes. Maybe more mistakes than things we get right. But we can know what it means to be a godly parent. So today, on Father's Day, we're going to talk about what it means to be a godly father. And this is something we don't hear much about these days in our culture. But how many of you know that godly fathers hold the key to the next generation faithfully serving Jesus Christ? Now, I'm not minimizing moms at all. A month ago, we talked about how moms show us the very attributes of God Himself. But it's Father's Day, so I just want to focus in on dads today. But the problem is that our culture continues to minimize the role of dads. Isn't that true? And sometimes, dads have earned it. We have some fathers who have abandoned children. We have men who have gotten women pregnant and then shirked the responsibility and just left. And so some of that's been earned. But it seems like it's a good tactic from the enemy, doesn't it? To try to destroy the man's role in a family and try to destroy fatherhood. It's a tactic that works sometimes, but there's a difference that we can make in this room or anyone within the sound of my voice, if you're a dad. What anyone else has done, what any mistake anyone else has made has no bearing on you. In fact, the mistakes you made are in your past. But today, I want you to know, dads, that we can make a difference in this generation regardless of what the tactics of the enemy is regarding fathers. And so today's text reveals this incredible opportunity, dads, that you and I have to model godliness for our family. I want you to hear that, because that's what this message is about. Modeling godliness. Not just talking about it. Modeling godliness for our family. It's the best thing we can do as a dad. So what do godly fathers look like? What do godly fathers look like? There's so much that we can say, but we're going to highlight a passage today that gives us three attributes that we can work towards. And I say work towards on purpose, because this isn't a message about what you're not doing, dad. Today is meant to be a blessing for you. It's not a message about what you need to do better. It's a message about what you can do with the help of Christ. And so it's a message for fathers at any stage of fathering, whether you have an infant, whether your kids are grown like in my parents, where I can still get advice from my parents, whether you're an uncle or a grandpa or a spiritual father, you can make a difference. And so I know we have moms in this room that are playing the role of both mom and dad. So I want to say I recognize that, and we want to honor you too this morning. So let's go ahead and just jump into our text. Psalm chapter 112, verses 1 through 8. I know I've lost my mind. I've been doing like 40 verse marathons the last few weeks. But it's going to be eight verses this morning. So let's just go ahead and dive right in. Here's what the psalmist says. Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments. His offspring will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in His house, and His righteousness endures forever. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. Isn't that such a good passage? Such a good passage. You'll notice in the very beginning of the passage it says, His offspring will be mighty in the land. We're talking about a dad here in this passage. And we think, we don't always know for sure, but we think David, King David, wrote this psalm. And if that's the case, he knows a few things about tremendous successes as a father and tremendous failures in fatherhood. And I think in all of that, he's learned what matters most in the character of men and especially in fathers. And he provides us this description of godly fathers, and we see it in verses 1-3. So let's read verses 1-3 again. Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments. His offspring will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in this house, and His righteousness endures forever. According to this passage, there's someone who through their life, their children become blessed and mighty in the land. Is it the perfect dad? Is it the dad who makes the most money? That's not what's said here. So who is it that has children that are blessed and mighty in the land? It's the children of the fathers who fear the Lord. Children of fathers who fear the Lord. So we see here first that godly fathers can model the fear of the Lord. Hear that this morning, church. Godly fathers can model the fear of the Lord. See, this passage pulls no punches when it comes to what's important for fathers. And having the fear of the Lord, listen, it's not just saying you're a Christian. That's not what this passage says. Unfortunately, there are lots of Christians who don't fear God. So what is the fear of the Lord? Now this is a message I've wanted to preach for a long time, or even do a series, but it's a really deep topic. There's a lot of meat on that bone. I just don't feel ready to preach it yet, because the topic of the fear of God is huge. And it's hard to sum up what the fear of the Lord is in one word. Many people use the word reverence, which is a decent approximation. But it's more than that. That's why in the Bible, it's always described, but it's never defined. It's described a whole lot, but it's never clearly defined. I'll give you some examples. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, Proverbs 9, 10. The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil, Proverbs 8, 13. Verse 1 of our passage for today says that fearing the Lord causes one to delight in God's commandments. And Psalm 33, 8 says, Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. So for this morning, I'll say that the fear of the Lord is this. It's being in awe at the wonder of His majesty, and His power, and His wisdom. It's recognizing God's hatred for sin and quite literally fearing His judgment. Time out. Let me unpack that a little bit. We are not objects of God's wrath, right? We are not meant as redeemed people to walk around afraid of God. But not living in fear of something doesn't mean you shouldn't fear it. He's holy. You see that? Walking, not living in fear of something does not mean that you shouldn't fear it. He's still God. He's still holy. So it's a recognition of the bigness of who He is and how small we are in comparison. And frankly, it's having the sense to obey Him above all else. Amen? That's the best that I can say about what the fear of God is. And King David models this amazingly in his life. You know, King David, as you know if you've studied his life, went through hell over and over again on the run for his life. And in the middle of all that, he trusted God to fight his battles. If you remember the situation where King Saul's trying to kill him. Over and over, has him on the run in caves. And David has this opportunity to kill Saul while he's sleeping. And he would have been justified in doing so. But he doesn't do it. Why? Because he knew that God had appointed him king. And so he had the fear of the Lord. It wasn't for him to take his life. No matter what Saul was doing to him. You see the fear of God. David, even though he goes through hell, he never gets puffed up. And during his reign, he followed God's commands more closely than any other king. And as a result, his kingdom served Yahweh under his reign. Which is not what we can say for many of the other kings. And all of this earned him the title, Man After God's Own Heart. We're familiar with that phrase, right? Man After God's Own Heart. The fear of God was the key church. That's what's so unique about David. The fear of God. And many of the problems we have in life today are remedied by the fear of God. Let me give you some examples. Think about it. When there's a lack of fear of God, terrible things enter your life and enter your mind. Here's one. Wondering when life technically begins in the womb. If you fear God, you don't touch that question with a ten foot pole. Or a hundred foot pole. It's not a scientific question. It's a question of the fear of God. Who are we to ask that kind of a question? Right? You don't ask that question if you have the fear of God. So then the whole thing becomes a moot point. Or disregarding God's plan for two unique genders. And I don't say that to be unkind or unloving. I know there are folks that are really, really struggling and confused because the God of this world blinds people. But the answer is to orient oneself with the fear of God to the Maker, not try to change His creation. So you see, the answer, again, and we can be compassionate as we help people, but the answer is the fear of God because we're asking questions we have no business asking. And a lack of the fear of God leads to disregard for absolute truth that's written on the heart of every man, whether you're saved or unsaved. You just, Romans 1 tells us that. You disregard it. Why? A lack of the fear of God. And so these are all problems in our world that fill the void that was once filled with awe and reverence for God. But dads, we can help. And that's what I want you to hear. And that's what I want you to hear this morning. Dads, we can help. How? Psalm 3411 tells us, Come, O children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. It doesn't happen by accident, church. It doesn't happen by simply bringing people to church or being a Christian. We have to show them the way. We have the opportunity to model and teach the fear of God. Let me show you how this works. Moses understood it. He understood the importance of teaching the next generation. In fact, if you remember the story in Deuteronomy, when they're about to enter into the promised land, Moses is about ready to check out Deuteronomy 6, verse 6. Here's what he says. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. Do you hear that? You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand. They shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. This is everything but a casual mention of what's important. And what I want us to see, dads, is that what you make important will be important to the next generation. And when you speak, what you speak of, excuse me, what you speak of and what you model and what you commit to will impact those around you. Why? Because the next generation is watching. It's the way God made it. Your men, your dads, the next generation is watching. And so dads, grandpas, uncles, just men in general, can I encourage you with this this morning? Have the following types of words on your lips because that's where modeling starts, with the things you say and the things you do. Can I just encourage you to have these kinds of words ready on your lips? Family, we're going to pray and put God first. Family, we're going to read Scripture and seek God's will on this matter. Son, daughter, in our home, we don't care what others think about, fill in the blank. We care only about what God thinks. Family, God is a holy God and we will honor Him with everything we are. Men, this is the difference that we can make as dads. So godly fathers can model the fear of God. And the psalmist tells us more. He tells us that we can also model integrity. We can model integrity. Let's look at verse 4. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever. These verses are speaking of a father, of a man who's committed to doing the right thing in a world where integrity is very hard to come by. And you know that's true. Not only is the man in these verses gracious and merciful, but he acts with generosity and justice. He walks with integrity. And dads, this is one of those areas where we can be tempted. I know that you often have the weight of the world on your shoulders. Worrying if you're making enough, if you're going to keep your job, if your family's happy. You know, we internalize this. It's my responsibility. You'll fight and do anything you can to make sure your family's taken care of and they have everything they need. But even in the middle of that, our kids are watching us in the moments of truth. So let's get practical. Modeling integrity. Dad, what do you do when the server rings up your meal? For less than it should be. What happens when something goes down at work that isn't right? And telling the truth could cost you your job or does. Is that a teaching moment for your family? What happens when you're clearly wrong about something and you have a chance to apologize openly or let pride win? I want us to see, church, that the decisions we make in these situations are bigger than just ourselves. Fathers, they're bigger than just ourselves. What we model, what we say, the decisions we make, because everybody's watching. You know, I get to do Bible studies with my kids and I take them through books of the Bible. We just finished Acts and now we started Nehemiah. And if you remember, Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the king in Persia after the northern king of Israel was taken into captivity. And he had favor with the king and the king saw that he was upset about something and asked him what's wrong. And Nehemiah says, listen, I'm upset because Jerusalem is in ruins. The walls are in ruins. And so we need to rebuild this thing. And so the king lets him go. And so we have this amazing story of Nehemiah gathering people together, being a strong leader to rebuild these walls, even though there's so much opposition. But while he's doing this, the people come to him and say, Nehemiah, the previous governors have not treated us fairly. Our fellow countrymen aren't treating us fairly. They're exacting taxes from us that we can't afford. It's forcing our sons and daughters into slavery. And the end result is that we're poor. We're losing our land. People weren't acting with integrity. So what does Nehemiah do? I'm reading this story to my children. So Nehemiah chapter 5 verse 9, we can see what happens. So I said, Nehemiah said, the thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God? There it is again. To prevent the taunts of the nations, our enemies. Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest. Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them. Then they said, we will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say. And I called the priests and made them swear to do as they had promised. You see, Nehemiah found himself in a moment of truth where everyone else before him decided to get rich and live on easy street. But Nehemiah models integrity for a whole nation. How does he do it? He stands up and he says, No, this is not the way of the Lord. This is not how we'll act. Guys do the right thing is what he says. After I read this story, I told my kids to make it real. I said, boys, a real man does the right thing even when it's hard. A real man does the right thing even when it costs you greatly. No matter what, you always do the right thing. And one of my sons says to me, almost brought me to tears. He said, like you, Daddy? And here's what I know. I know that I don't always do the right thing. I know that plenty of times I mess up and I don't make the integrous decision. But what impacted me was the fact that he was watching and he was making the connection between what a godly man is by what he was watching his dad do. Not what I'm teaching him. All the BBS in the world can't make up for what a dad can do by just modeling integrity. So you see, your kids are watching. Your young kids, your older kids, your grandkids. And you can model for them the way of the Lord. Think about 1 Chronicles 29. It's a good example here. This is when David was gathering offerings for the temple. He says this, I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart, I have freely offered all these things. So his gifts to the Lord. And now I have seen your people who are present here offering freely and joyously to you. Do you see the connection? Do you see the cause and effect that happens when someone stands up and says, this is who we will be. And then people follow. So fathers, we teach the next generation integrity through our life. So just like with the fear of God, let these kinds of words be on your lips. Family, we're going to do the right thing in the Houston household, in the Flowers household, in the Jones household. We do the right thing in this household. Say this, the hands will walk in integrity even when it's difficult, kids. When it's hard, we're going to walk in integrity. Kids, watch as your daddy makes things right with our neighbor because real men do what's right. That's what it means to model integrity. You can get so much wrong and it's okay. You don't have to be perfect, but you have an opportunity to seize the moment, to fear God, to walk in integrity, but to do it out loud and not assume that folks are getting it. But like David and Moses, we can teach the next generation. So godly fathers, they can model the fear of God. They can model integrity. And the last one that we see in this passage, you can model faith. You can model faith. These two verses, in fact, let me read it. Verse 7 and 8. He is not afraid of bad news. This is going back to our main text. I'm sorry, Psalm 112, verse 7 and 8. He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. This verse hits home for us. Why does it hit home? Why can we all relate to this? Because it describes real life. Getting bad news, having reasons to fear, people against you, health scares, financial difficulties, trouble amongst family members. Anyone been there in this church? Right? This is what real life is all about. But what's interesting, then, is the verse doesn't talk about a man who comes home from work so stressed out that they walk in the door, they go into the bedroom, they shut the door behind them, and they turn the television on because they're stressed. And let me say this. I mean no condemnation in saying that. Honestly. Because I know sometimes the stress and the pressures of life is overwhelming. Sometimes we just need to shut ourselves off. But I also know that as men, we often shut down. That's kind of how our defense mechanism works sometimes. But as men, you know that, guys. We often shut down. We stop talking. We avoid people. We close ourselves off emotionally. I'm not condemning you. I want to encourage you with this. There's good news. In the middle of hell, even though you can't change the circumstances around you, you can impact those you love the most by modeling what it looks like to face fear and stress and pressure and trust the Lord through it. That makes the lowest of moments of victory. For a dad, you're investing in their future and the next generation showing them. You're on the edge of tears. You don't know how you're going to pay the rent. Kids, we trust in God. He's going to be okay. That makes a bad situation a winning situation. So what does it look like to model faith? Well, let me say this first. First, faith isn't pretending everything is going to be okay. I cannot underscore that enough. The word faith messes us so up in Christendom. It is not pretending everything is going to be okay. In fact, when we do this, our children grow up unprepared to handle life's punches. And then they get mad at God. Anyone know anyone where that's happened? I know I have. We sort of teach them a fairy tale version. But the Scripture handles all of it. It handles the powerful miracles and it handles the desperate places. And we have to look at the whole counsel of Scripture when it comes to faith so that we can know how to walk in faith in a godly way. We sang a new song today called Faithful Now. Isn't that a good song? That second song we did, it speaks of trusting God to be faithful in every situation. But sometimes we get confused, men, and all of us, in the tension between faith for great things and also resting in God's sovereignty. And I'd be lying to you if I said that the Scripture doesn't hold them out in tension. Believing, believing, but trusting and resting. They're both true at the same time. So can I just offer to you what I believe the Scripture says about what godly faith looks like? Sounds something like this. God, I will declare your faithfulness and trust you for the end. The impossible great faith. And I will define you coming through on your faithfulness as your will being done, even if I don't like it. And that gives the next generation a chance to not be mowed over by life's difficulties. You see, we're supposed to sing songs about God coming through and being faithful. We're supposed to sing songs about slaying Goliath and waters parting. And many times that happens. You know that's true. We serve a powerful God whose Spirit is at work in the present day. Our job is to trust Him and believe for the greatness of what God has. I'm not taking that away even this much. I'm just saying we get confused when we define whether or not He's been faithful to me based on how I feel about the outcome. That's the difference. That's where we end up getting hurt sometimes. In the body of Christ. We've got to trust that we do our part, He does His part. And that allows us to then believe and have great faith while also resting. You know, we can have faith for the impossible and rest. That's why I love that missionary who came and barely could squeak out the prayer, Lord, I pray You'd bring life to that dead woman. He was embarrassed to even say it out loud. It was all he could do just to say it. It was all the faith that he had. And guess what happened? That woman came back to life. And God got all the glory. Believing for what's great and having rest. And by the way, this is a bit of a tangent, but what a great opportunity to clarify faithfulness. So when we say, God, You were faithful, then You'll be faithful now. We're not saying, God, they got what they wanted then and I'm getting what I want now. He's faithful. The issue is settled. And sometimes it's going to be a miracle that will blow you over. And sometimes, it's the miracle of His closeness walking you through, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fire, or Noah in the ark. And both of those are God's faithfulness in action. Amen? Amen. So if I've ruffled your feathers, give me grace. But I think that's the scriptural balance of what's true about faith. So faith is about walking through the fire with an abiding trust in the Lord and showing your kids that you can be okay with the Lord when life isn't okay. I want to say that again because I feel like, you know, pastoring for lots of years and different kinds of roles since I was 22, and just working with people and counseling and seeing how their lives go. I feel like one of the greatest signs of maturity in a believer is the ability to be okay with the Lord when life isn't okay. Because people so quickly get hurt and feel abandoned and feel like God has left them. And at the end of the day, it comes down to an issue of faith. But we can show our kids that you can be okay with the Lord when life's not okay. So faith is rehearsing God's goodness, His faithfulness, His closeness, His everlasting love that brings the peace that passes all understanding. There's breakthrough, or there's peace. There's miracles, or there's this closeness. No matter what, faith in the Lord causes God to move on your behalf and to be close to you and to accomplish His perfect will in your life. And our kids learn that by watching how we handle our own difficulties. That's how they learn it. That's how they know it's okay. This is why the writer of Hebrews reminds us in the Hall of Faith chapter, chapter 11, where he goes through all these great men of faith, chapter 11, verse 8. He says, By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise, for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. Boy, that sounds like a great passage. But we have the benefit of hindsight that knowing that that really, really positive narrative that we see in Abraham's life was filled with some really, really difficult times. Really difficult times. We have the benefit of knowing that. But Abraham's journey was filled with great triumph and difficulties. But he kept his family, according to the Scripture, looking forward. Looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. It's not that the stuff wasn't happening all around him. But the godly father doesn't deny the reality of what's happening. They just say God's faithful in the middle of it, and they keep their family looking forward. Dads, we can do that no matter how hard life gets. We don't have to pretend everything's okay. But we can keep our family looking forward, and in doing so, model faith. You know, Habakkuk 2, 4 reminds us that the righteous live by faith. You know, it's one of those things you just have to sort of settle the issue on in your life. I will live by faith. You know, that's a good thing that happened in my life. Was that happenstance, or was that God? Oh, the righteous live by faith. That was God. God took care of me. God provided for me. He's leading me, even when I can't see it. I know, behind the scenes, supernatural. He's leading my family. So the righteous live by faith. So if you've settled that issue with that Scripture in mind, Father, let these words be on your lips. Let these words be on your lips as you model for your family. I don't know the future, but I know your Daddy's God is faithful. I know this situation feels bad, but God is trustworthy. He will carry us through it. I know this situation seems impossible, but we serve a God of miracles and will trust His perfect will. Dads, this is what we get to say to our family. This is the difference that we can make when we recognize that the next generation gets their cues from us. And I think many of you realize this message, though it's focused on dads, really applies to anyone who wears the badge Christian. Because there's always somebody watching. There's always somebody we're influencing. And so dads, I share this word with you on Father's Day this morning to lift you, because I know when life gets tough, the worst thing for a man is not knowing what to do. If we got a plan, even if it's tough, we're typically okay. But for men, fathers, if you don't have a plan, you don't know what to do, that's hard. But I want you to know that no matter what life throws at you, you can turn life's challenges into learning moments. No matter what life throws at you, you can turn life's challenges into learning moments for your family and those around you by openly fearing God, walking with integrity, and modeling faith. Amen? So dads, don't worry about your past. Because it's never too late to model godly fatherhood. Even if your kids are all grown, it doesn't matter. It's not too late. You can still do it. So fathers, we honor you today in the role God has given you by His design. The influence He has given you as men by His design. It's hard, it's tiring, it's stressful, and it's sometimes lonely. But you are showing us all the way to Christ. And God will help you do it. We have excellent children's, nursery, and youth programs delivering the family. Thanks again for listening to Elevate and may God bless you.