Introduction:

Today is the 53^rd official Father’s Day holiday in the USA. This special day did not become a national holiday until 1972, when President Richard Nixon signed the congressional resolution permanently establishing the 3rd Sunday in June as Father’s Day.

I want to wish a Happy Father’s Day to all the dads. Father’s Day is a special day to honor & appreciate your dad. Fathers, I can say without a doubt that being a good father & a good husband is the most challenging responsibility we can ever face. We must remember the family was the first institution God created.

It was God’s design for the home and the foundation of our society. It is Satan opposing the home and every perfect work of God. Satan is attacking the head. Satan has succeeded in convincing fathers they are not important and their spiritual leadership is not needed. When we study the Bible we see how important man role is especially as a father.

Ephesians 5: 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6;4

We must remember Satan is preparing a generation of men who won’t resist his demonic scheme to rule over the earth and usurp the Kingdom of Christ. The results are a godless generation because the facts are the father’s role is extremely important.

Father’s Day, while widely celebrated, has faced its share of controversy. Some question its necessity in a world where gender roles are evolving.

Men have experienced cultural and social attrition of what it means to be a man, particularly today a white man. This perception comes from certain shifts in society; it’s rooted in real changes that have hit hard the male role. Jobs have been loss in traditional male roles, where men could provide for their families. Where men feel purpose, and build identity.

Automation, globalization, and AI proliferation have hit these sectors hard. A guy who could support a family on a factory job in 1980 can’t do that now on a similar wage. This tears down the traditional “provider” role, which many men still tie to their sense of worth. God made it that way it is his design.

Masculinity is under attack when we have to hear terms like “toxic masculinity”. When our media, academics, and activists talk about “the patriarchy” or “white male privilege,” this relates like a wholesale condemnation of what men are. Men are created different and they were created that way by our God. Again God establish the head of the home and evil has been used to undermined and destroy it as if God design was flawed.

Some men feel like they’re losing their place, especially when cultural messaging seems to celebrate women’s empowerment while dismissing men’s struggles. Feminism had it influence and took its toll on the importance of the role of men. Many commercials make the man, the father a bubbling idiot. The last election won a victory by a majority of Latino men (54%) and held steady with Black men (20%). This suggests the “breakdown of men” crosses racial lines—it’s about shared economic and cultural frustrations.

 This “breakdown” is real for many men. They are seeing their role in the world shrink, their struggles ignored, and their identity mocked or dismissed. The economy and H1B has overlooked working-class men, and the culture often feels like its kicking them while they are down. Men who want to be fathers find it hard to achieve this status which affects them and our children.

A study of nearly 2000 children age 3 and older living with a residential father or a father figure found that children living with married biological parents had significantly fewer behavioral problems than children living with at least one non-biological parent. Folks, these are the facts; no spin here. Fatherhood is important for families, church… Men to be a good father even though you had a poor or harmful experience with your own father need to look to God.

Look to God as “our Father” it is the key and it requires we understand that He is a loving, caring, correcting, and compassionate Father. We begin with just two points from the Lord’s Prayer…

I. Addressing God as “Our Father”.

1. The word father invokes different images for everyone. To some it brings the picture of love, respect, and acceptance. Unfortunately, others associate the term father with fear, anger, rejection, and disappointment. That is why it is so important to take your understanding of a father from the scriptures and not from your personal experiences. God is our model of a father in the truest sense of the word. This is why our Lord would have us address him as our Father. We can and should address God as our father being mindful our child / father relationship. This helps us in understanding He is knowable and approachable. Romans 8:15-17

2. Abba is an Aramaic word for “Daddy” or “Papa.” It was a form of address forbidden among the Jews to be used by a slave to the head of the family. Abba, or “Daddy,” is a name of trust and love reserved for family members, while Father is a name that emphasizes position and authority. The two names together emphasize complete trust and assured relationship.

3. He has made you His heirs and reserves a home for you in heaven. We cannot comprehend all that is ours as fellow heirs with Christ. The knowledge that we will share Christ’s inheritance with Him absolutely should astound us! Left to our own, we could not begin to understand all that we received once we became children of our Heavenly Father. Your heavenly Father loves you so much that He is willing to discipline you to bring you to Christian maturity

4. Even when you rebel against Him and reject His love, your Father continues to do what is best for you (Romans. 5:8). He does not make His love for you conditional upon your love for Him. He loves you even when you are not loving Him (1 John 4:19). We love him, because he first loved us. This is what a father is like biblically.

—Calling God “Father” helps us comprehend the concept that He is knowable, loving and approachable, but the phrase “in heaven” reminds us of who He is and who we are…

II. God’s address “who art in Heaven”

1.) God is holy and sinless, but we are not. Although we can have an intimate relationship with our heavenly Father, we should never approach Him with arrogance or presumption.

2) Our Heavenly Father is everywhere, including in us. God dwells in the third heaven, but He is close enough to hear my every prayer. This truth is beyond human comprehension, but remembering God’s omnipresence should bring awe and reverence to our relationship with Him as father. God’s “address” reminds us He is everywhere, and…

3). God’s address reminds us He can do anything. The phrase in heaven reminds us our heavenly Father is not just an ideal version of earthly fathers but a Father who can do anything. When we pray Our Father which art in heaven, we should have the same awe of God as Isaiah, who writes of God: (Isaiah 40:26b). Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these [things], that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that [he is] strong in power; not one faileth.

Austin Sorensen once said “A Child is not likely to find a father in God unless he finds something of God in his father. We would do well to emulate Him for our children sake. “Fathers are needed to be there to give a young son a sense of what it means to be a man, and to explain why honor and loyalty and fidelity are important. Men, God desires we emulate him and we will do a good job as an earthly father.

God is sinless, and we are not, but His love transcends the difference. Since we are sinful, we cannot reach heaven on our own, so in His love God brings heaven to us. This means when we acknowledge our spiritual poverty and come to God as spiritual beggars, confessing our sin and trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, we enter the kingdom of heaven.

 God’s address becomes our eternal address. / Gospel / Ephesians 2:8-9

We are to keep in mind our heavenly Father is the majestic Creator and Ruler of the universe, who is in heaven surrounded by indescribable majesty and glory.

Conclusion:

Fathers must lead through action, communicate godly wisdom, speak with purpose, and teach their children to learn from their experiences.  Fathers need to leave a lasting influence that reaches far beyond the walls of their homes and impart the truths of God’s word. The presence of a father serves to plant the seeds of virtue and instill American values in their children.  For many, dads are the first to teach the value of hard work, love of country, and the importance of living with conviction.  With every generation, these lessons carried forth.