Dads of the Bible - Fathers Day 2026

Well, we interrupt our regularly scheduled expository programming for a Father's Day message out of the gate. I think it's only fair that I say to you that I am a dad sympathizer. It is a tough job and it isn't getting any easier in the day and age in which we live. I remember early in our Christian experience, my wife and I, I remembered my wife being at one of the ladies Bible studies and we. One of the things that was being talked about conversationally there was sometimes how difficult it can be to submit to the man of the house and to let him have the say so and those kind of things.

And Jamie said that I am. I don't think like that at all. I'm really happy that he has all that responsibility and I don't want it. So even though I'm very thankful that my wife thinks like that, it's also scary because she's right. It's scary that those decision making and the direction of the home is, is on the head of the house, is on the father and the husband of the house.

And these days there's a lot of temptation to bail out of that, to try to abdicate your responsibility to not fight for any sort of position of authority in the home. These are you. If you don't already feel it, you will, especially if you're a newer couple. I have a rule that if I'm ever in a debate or an argument with somebody that if they bring up Hitler, the debate's over. Like we're not talking anymore because Hitler is like the go to extreme tool for an argument.

So whenever somebody does that, I always feel like they're probably not being reasonable, but I'm going to bring up Hitler, but for real this time. Okay? This is not just to say something bad about Hitler or he would think like my enemies do or anything like that. Hitler literally wrote in Mein Kampf, he wrote at the time of in between World War I and World War II that he saw in his nation after World War I. He saw the decline in one particular area that he saw was disintegrating his country from within.

And that had to do with masculinity that men had stopped having in his mind national pride and dignity and standing up for their country. And so Hitler saw that men were working all week and then they were taking their paychecks and going to the pub and drinking their paychecks and not providing for their family, not being mentioned. Now Hitler took advantage of that. Adolf Hitler took advantage of that and he used that Culture at that time, at a time of weakness, a time of where masculinity was in trouble and the time where the people didn't have any sort of structure and strength and dignity of character. And Hitler used it to rise to power.

He used it to fill a void in his country and it worked to the detriment of the whole world for all mankind. I bring that up not to say that Hitler was a good leader, but there's no question that he was smart, that he used an opportunity when his country's masculinity was an all time low. The roles of men, the dignity of men, the role of men in their homes, the role of men as providers, the role of men as leaders was at an all time low. He steps in and decided, I'm going to change that. It worked and 12 million people died because of it.

We usually think of the 6 million Jews, but there was a lot more than the Jews that died. Our country right now, if you didn't know, is in a manhood crisis. Manhood is very much under attack. Anything called masculinity, you know the word, you know the word toxic, that's the word that's associated with masculinity now. In the beginning it was just toxic masculinity, that was bad.

I don't know if you know. But now all masculinity is toxic. Our country, it's outdated, it's archaic, it's barbaric, it's primitive. And then what is. What do men do?

You know what? The answer to that now are these ridiculous masculinity alpha male gurus that are coming on the scene and saying, we don't want to be cowards and weaklings. So what are we going to do? We're going to swing the pendulum from one error, which is unmasculine men, all the way to the other error, which is super masculine men who take steroids and have, I don't know, beards and everything else. And that's going to be the definitive man in our country.

Now get a Harley, make sure you have a gun, and, I don't know, the right kind of clothing. We're going to learn from the word today what God expects of men. God defines these things. These are not things that we need to guess. You don't need to get online to find a masculinity guru.

You don't need to abandon masculinity when it's done right. I love what John Piper says in his book. It's the book I typically use to do premarital Counseling, sometimes just marital counseling, where he describes a godly man as a Christlike leader, somebody who leads his home like Christ does, somebody who loves his wife like Christ does, somebody that's careful and patient like Christ is. And he just defines and defines. And then he says something along the lines of, I can't imagine a woman who would have trouble submitting to a man like that.

Well, maybe the trouble is, is we don't have men like that. And I'll tell you from scripture this morning and we'll discuss it together. There are clear, clear instructions in scripture of what not to do and what to do when it comes to being ahead of a home. Now, clearly, the main idea here is dads, specifically raising children. But I'm coupling that together with just leaders of homes, with just men, men being men, godly men.

So, ladies, you might have thought today was your day off. Sick them, Pastor. Get those men. Let them have it. No, it's all of us.

We all need to promote biblical manhood. We all need to do what God calls us to do as Christians for the subject of manhood while we try to live in this crazy world that's so against it. Let's pray. Father, this is your invention. The things that we're talking about here are your things.

You own them. You've clearly spelled out in your word how you want these things done, how men should act, what men are supposed to be, that men and women are different. These are things that your word is so clear about. And we're going to see, Father, that even the best, even the people that we consider heroes of the faith failed and had low points. So manhood is an area, and fatherhood is an area where anybody can trip up and fail.

Oh, but Father, you clearly spell out what success looks like, what you honor, what you respect, and how we can reflect your fatherhood on ear. There's a reason you invented this thing, and it is to reflect you and how you are. And I'm asking, Father, that the men of this church, the people hearing my voice, even now, that the people hearing from your word, what you have decided is biblical manhood, fatherhood would embrace the challenge and go be biblical men. Would you encourage us from your word this morning so that we can stand where we need to stand, even in the face of such opposition in our world, that we respond biblically to the challenge of manhood and show ourselves to be men of God? Would you help us do that, please?

In Jesus name? Amen. Well, the first thing I'm going to do, by the way, this structure is identical to the structure I used on Mother's Day. I made the two messages simultaneously when I did them years ago. And so they're parallel if you wanted to use the two side by side.

So the first thing I want you to see this morning, it might seem obvious to you, but it's not obvious. If it were obvious, our world would be attentive to it. But. But that is that fatherhood is a good idea. It's a good idea that God had when he designed fatherhood.

It's a good idea. In Exodus, chapter 20, you know that passage really well. It's where the Ten Commandments are. It was after the people were rescued from Egypt from. From their bondage, God brought the people out of Egypt, and the very first thing he does with them is align them with his will.

I always remind people it's a good trick question if you want to ask your family or your kids. I mean, now the kids are going to hear me say it. So, dad, you're not going to get away with the trick question. But if you were to ask your kids, what's the first thing said when God gives the. When Moses gives the commandments, what's the first thing that's said?

And the answer is not the first commandment. You'll have no other gods. That's not the first thing said. The first thing said is, I am the God who brought you out of Egypt. In other words, there is already a relationship between God and his people.

The relationship is already there. He doesn't say, do these 10 things and we have a relationship. No, you're already my people. And then he says, these are the things I expect of my people. But the very first one that deals with humans in the fifth commandment is in Exodus 20, verse 12, honor your father and your mother.

So the very first human relation, the very first human statement that God says to his people is that they are to honor fathers. And what I'm suggesting to you, this isn't a big stretch. You don't need a scholar to tell you this. If God says, honor your father and your mother, it's a good idea. God made that we don't ask God.

Are you sure? Are you sure we should honor our father and mother? Is that the best idea? Because maybe you don't know my father. Maybe you don't know my grandfather.

Maybe you don't know my family history. Are you sure I'm supposed to honor my father? Yes. God said, honor your father. He didn't say honor good fathers.

He said, honor your Father. So this is a good idea. Out of the gate. I'll read a couple of verses to you and listen for the word honor and the word glory. Proverbs 3, 9.

Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase. Honor the Lord. Listen for the word glorify in this text. Psalm 22:23. You who fear the Lord, praise him, all you descendants of Jacob, glorify him, and fear him all you offspring of Israel, glorify him.

Last one. Isaiah 60:6. Listen for the word glorified. Hear the word of the Lord. You who tremble at his word.

Your brethren who hated you, who cast you out for my name's sake, said, let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy. The reason I bring those verses up, you're thinking, what is he talking about? Did Pastor Johnny lose his mind? I thought we were talking about fatherhood. All of those words, honor and glory, are used of the Lord.

That is the same word used of fathers in Exodus chapter 20. How seriously does God take the honor of fathers? So seriously that the same word is used of honoring fathers. That is used of honoring God. Now, that does not make you dads equal with God.

Don't you dare do that. When you get home today. You have to honor me the way God says to honor him. No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying he takes honor and respect so seriously that the same word is used of the honor and respect that you give him of our earthly father.

So God cares very much about it, and he doesn't have to tell us God's ideas are the best ideas if you didn't know that. He doesn't have to tell us why we should honor our father and mother. He doesn't have to tell us why, but he does in Exodus 20, the second half of that verse, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. He associates the blessing with the honor. He doesn't have to do that.

Did you know that God could say, honor your father because I said so? He could do that if he wants, but he doesn't do that. He says, honor them so that your days may be long. Now, here's a side note, kids, be careful. Be happy that you live in New Testament times, because that probably mainly means that if you dishonor dad and disobey him and are disobedient, you'll get killed.

You all know the text, right? That if you have disobedient children under Old Testament Law, your days may not be long on the earth. So I'm not suggesting that we kill our kids with capital punishment, but I am saying that in order to have a good, healthy, long life, honor your dad. The dads right now are like amen, say that, get them, you know, sick them. But that is the idea.

The idea is that to have the blessing of the that God promises with the honor, the honor has to be there and it's a good idea. Now here's what we're going to do next. I did this with the mothers too. I have a list of men in the Bible who are fathers, who are heads of home, who fail in their job, they fail in their duty, they fail, they become derelict. I have them.

And then I have another list of men who are honored by God in their headship. Now what you're going to notice is that there are some names that are on both lists and that is because there is only one kind of father and husband and that is a sinful kind. So the first list is how they failed, where they were, they were negligent in their duties, how they did it wrong. And then the next list, the next we will cover those same lists and some other, some other men and how they were either redeemed or fixed or repaired, what they failed at. So that's what we're going to do next.

This is the first thing I want you to catch, and you see it in your notes, is that this is a healthy reality check. I don't want to just camp on the negative. We Baptists are known to preach, you know, judgment and strong. I do want to preach judgment where it's required. But this is not intended to beat you up.

This is intended, especially you men and the fathers of this church to be reflective, to say is there anything in me that's like that guy that pastor is using who failed? Do I have any of that guy's characteristics? Is there any self examination I could do so that if there is any of that in me, if I have slipped or fallen in these areas, that I can examine that and ask God to rescue and repair me from it so that my family doesn't suffer from those things. So this isn't intended to beat you up though it's going to feel a little beat upy. That's not the intent.

The intent is to just show how it can be done wrong. Then we'll turn around and show how it can be done right. So there are some dads in the Bible that will help us with that. It's Serious business. God takes it very seriously.

Proverbs 1 says, My son, hear the instruction of your father. The first proverb, the book of wisdom, starts with telling sons to listen to fathers. That should tell us that we fathers and the fathers that we're raising and the homes that we're leading and the families that we say serve and honor the Lord are going to take those instructions to heart, that we are going to see that the role of a father is important to the Lord. And we need the reality check to see if we're doing anything that needs to be corrected. Now, let's go through a list of a few men who missed, failed, or slipped.

None of these men, I think, were like, I don't have a list of any of men that utterly failed to the point of no redemption. But the failures in particular with Adam, you're going to see are catastrophic failures. They're like the ultimate level of failure. They're the biggest failure you could ever fail. So the first one we have in our list of flawed people who slipped up, who fell, who were bad examples of leadership in their home, who were bad examples as fathers, as husbands, heads of houses, who failed in their duty.

The kind of people that if we continue down the path that we are as a nation, as a people, as a species, that we are going to destroy ourselves with bad leadership and bad fatherhood and all those other things. The first one is Adam. The first one is the first one. How are we doing, men? That our first guy, our first representative, the first man of all men failed.

A man. The first. His name is the word man. His name, Adam. The word means man.

And he failed at manhood. So men, do you think you're all that you think you're doing? Okay, if the first one who did not have a sin nature, the first one who was put in the garden with no influences, there was no Internet, he couldn't scroll TikTok and be tempted. The first one failed. The main thing I want to pick up on in his failure was in his leadership over his home.

Not just in general in sin, but the way that happened. I'll read from Genesis 3. Then the Lord God called Adam and said to him, where are you? This is after the fall. Genesis 1 and 2 tell the beginning story.

And then Genesis 3 is after the fall. So he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat? Then the man said, and you all know what he said.

The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate. Almost always. Almost always. And I'm guilty of this too. We talk about the blame of Adam to Eve almost in jest.

We almost joke about it. But there's nothing funny about it, if you really think about it. If you actually care about anything right and wrong, good or evil, the direction of your family, the direction of your country, if you care about those things. This event, when Eve listened to the serpent, gave her husband of the fruit, and the fall of mankind happened, is serious business. All of mankind's problems, from ingrown toenails to nuclear war, all happened because of that first sin.

Now you say, wait a second, he's blaming his wife. The first thing I want to tell you, especially you ladies, I told you, you're not going to get off the hook that easy. God actually holds Eve accountable. You know that, right? He does not say, she was innocent.

He goes and talks to her. And she does the same thing Adam did by blaming the serpent. So it's very important to catch that. He doesn't say, no, no, no, Adam, this isn't her fault, it's your fault. No, he holds her accountable.

But who gets called the one? Does the New Testament say, and Eve all die? Or in Adam all die? Who is accountable to the Lord for Eve failing? Adam is accountable.

So he slipped. He failed. He was standing right there next to her when the sin happened. He took the fruit instead of saying, what are you doing? Why are you talking to the serpent?

Instead of saying, no, don't eat of that. I don't want to eat of that. We're not going to eat of that. So Adam failed as a man at the task of manhood? Yes.

He failed morally as a man. Yes. He failed and failed as a thinker, as a decision maker. All of those things are true. But the thing I want us to see is our first dad.

He's not a dad yet in this text we know that. But he will be our first example of manhood failed. And his failure ruined everything. Now, it's a simple thing to say. You might say, well, the woman was deceived.

Yeah. Who does God hold accountable? Men, do you blame your wives for your family's problems? Men, do you say, the woman you gave me, are you the head of your home or is the wife? The head of the home?

Are the children? The head of the home is your job. The head of the home are politics. The head of the home or whatever. Adam failed in leading his home.

Yes. He failed morally. He failed representatively of us human beings. He fell theologically, anthropologically. You can go on and on.

But one place he failed miserably was in leaving his home. So Adam failed miserably. Now let's go to Abraham. You all know the song Jesus Take the Wheel? Well, in my notes it says, Abraham took the wheel.

What I mean by that is when God had promised to Abraham and Sarah, Sarai, at the time, Abram and Sarai. But then he promised to them that their children, their offspring, would bless the entire world, right in you. All the nations of the earth will be blessed. But they got into their age, hundred years old. They got up to their age and didn't have children.

So Abraham decided, well, I will take these matters into my own hands. So in other words, God had a clear plan. And he, by the way, audibly, directly to Abraham, expressed that plan to Abraham. So Abraham knew what God's plan was. Abraham was not ignorant.

He knew what God's plan was. And still, even though he knew what God's plan was, he still took the wheel. Then Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband, Abram to be his wife. After Abraham had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan. So he went into Hagar and she conceived.

And when she saw that she had been conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. That didn't take long, did it? That. That marital dysfunction. How long did it take, you say?

Well, we weren't there. We don't know exactly how long it took. Yeah, I know how long it took. One sentence. That's how long it took.

The second that Sarah got what she wanted, she was displeased. And they had a fight between the two women. Now you again. You guys, who might want to blame Eve, you might also want to blame Sarah. Who did God talk to and who did God rebuke?

Abraham. Abraham. He doesn't get to blame his wife. Abraham wanted what Sarah wanted. He actually argued.

You remember this, don't you? Your firstborn son. Who did Abraham wish his firstborn son was? Ishmael, Not Isaac. So Abraham got in big trouble there.

But the challenge is the same as it was with Adam. It's the same thing. There was chaos in the home. Is your home upside down? Who leads your home?

Who's in charge at your home? Is there anyone in charge at your home? Are the kids in charge? Do you have a child? Run home.

Are your Kids. The main character of your home is your wife. The main character of your home is your job, your life, the house, the car. Are those all the things that your attention and energy are focused on to where Abraham was most concerned with his progeny, with his future, with his future blessing and his family. That he wasn't concerned with the word of God and the clear instruction that God gave him.

That he wasn't okay with the timing of God and the instruction of God, that he doubted God, even though God explicitly told him, I will bless you through your offspring. Well then maybe God, you need my help. So Abraham failed. He failed just like Adam did. He failed in leadership.

He listened not only to his wife, but he listened to his wife against God's word. And maybe he might have argued with God. Well, I have to live with her. Noah is a painful one to me because I love this story of Noah. It's history by the way.

It's not proverbial or figurative. Noah really did build boat. Noah really did rescue all of the animals. That all really happened. The painful thing is how his life ends in Genesis 9.

Then he drank of the wine and was drunk and became uncovered in his tent. And then, you know, his children did what they did and it was ugly what happened. So Noah the hero, Noah, the man who preached the New Testament tells us he's for those hundred plus years building the ark and people mocking him. And he's standing for the Lord saying a day is coming when God is going to judge. And he's out there, the preacher of righteousness.

That's what the New Testament calls Noah the preacher. But how did his life end? Maybe he started well. Maybe when he first got saved. Noah went to church every Sunday.

Now I know there weren't any Sundays yet, there wasn't even the law yet. Maybe he was very active in his community as a believer. Maybe he and his family talked every night about the Lord and his goodness. Maybe since this is post fall, the family had meetings over. Wasn't that crazy?

What happened? The whole world was flooded and God rescued us. Maybe he started well and finished poorly. So this lesson of Noah is about finishing strong. It's me challenging you men if you'll take the challenge to not just bank on your previous faithfulness.

We used to say this in sales, that a lot of people and this works in everything. So you could use it in your work, whatever it is, contracting, whatever. Even being a housewife, you could use what I'm about to say, if it's everything that we used to say in Sales that a lot of people say they have 20 years of sales experience, but what they actually have is one year, 20 times, meaning they never got any better. They never did anymore. They just did that same thing 20 times.

That's the way it is for Christians, too. People say, well, I've been a Christian 20 years. Have you? Or have you been a Christian one year, 20 times, meaning you don't actually serve the Lord. You haven't actually matured in your faith.

You're not actually farther down the line of your progress of sanctification. You're just a lot like that first guy. And sometimes I wish people were more like that first new believer, that they still had zeal for the Lord. But I do want you to see it is possible as a Christian, to start well and finish poorly. It is possible.

And men, I would challenge you. Please don't. Please get your life in order. Please accept the challenge of being a man of God. And even if you have failed, and even if you've slipped and even if you've lost ground, the one amazing thing about grace, and we'll get there with Noah in a bit that you can reclaim lost ground.

And then lastly, in the Ms. Category, I have Lot. Now, Lot is an interesting case study because I don't know that we have a ton of spiritual or scriptural evidence that Lot was a superhero of the faith at any point. But I do know that when he had the opportunity, it seemed like he chose. Remember when the. The land.

You can have this land or you can have that land. And Abraham gave Lot the choice of which land he was going to take his family member. And Lot picked the. The choice land. Right.

He picked the best property. And maybe that does give us some indication of his motive. Like maybe he had a profit, prosperity kind of motive rather than a spiritual one. The text doesn't, I don't think Said say that explicitly, but he definitely took the good land. But the problem with that land is it was in a neighborhood.

And you know, the neighborhood that it was in, it was in the neighborhood of Sodom and Gomorrah. And you know the story, that amazing story. And I'm going to pluck out the verses that are the most, well, yucky to me. And yucky is a very theological term. I'm sure it has a Greek participle associated with it.

But this passage in Genesis gets me every time. It turns my stomach as a father of daughters. This text gets me every time. You know, the story. Lot is being warned by angels.

Angels come and visit him directly they look like men. They come in the form of men. Probably very clean. Not they didn't. They don't look like they.

They were construction. These are very proper looking men. Probably very fair skinned, right? Probably handsome, but very. Not like a guy that works in the desert, you know.

So these two men, they're angels, but looking like men appearing as men, come to tell Lot it's time to go. Your family member has prayed for you to rescue out of. Out of the judgment that's coming on Sodom and Gomorrah. And so please come with me, right? So you know the story that God, Abraham intercedes to pray for that family.

God is going to save that family. So he sends messengers to save that family, Lot's family. And we get the story in Genesis 19. And they called to Lot and said to him, now these are the men of the city. A city given over to homosexuality, a city given over to perversion, right?

So the men saw the angels come in. And the men go to talk to Lot, their neighbor, and they say, where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them. And then they translators add carnally know them. I've been talking about know, right?

That understanding of intimate knowledge. So you all know what's being said here. And if you don't know, if your kids don't know, ask your parents on the way home. I'm going to let them have that. So listen carefully to what Lot does.

What you would hope Lot would do was to have a wake up call and say, how have I come to. How does it come to this? How did I let our family get so entrenched in this sinful, putrid place that now these men come to my door, see me as their neighbor, and ask something of me perverted like this? And those men who knocked on the door are asking, they're not forcing. So they might have an indication that Lot might be agreeable to what they're doing.

That might tell you that Lot was entrenched in Sodom and Gomorrah as a citizen. He wasn't just in the world and not of the world. He was also of Sodom and Gomorrah. He had adopted their thinking. He was polluted by their perversion to a degree to where he negotiates with them.

You don't see him going out and doing the John the Baptist with Herod. You don't see him going out and calling them to repentance. Here's what we see him do. So Lot went out to Them through the doorway and shut the door behind him and said, please, my brethren. What does he call them?

My brethren, do not do so wickedly. See, now I have two daughters who have not known a man. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish. Only do nothing to these men. Since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.

I don't want to look bad to the distinguished angel men. So what I will do is give you my sexually pure daughters that you can have them sexually. Now, the real question I have now, this is just me, because I can be a little judgy sometimes, is, why does God want to rescue this guy? But then, of course, it's not long before I ask, why does God want to rescue this guy? Am I better than Lot?

Just so you know, I've said this a million times. I always think I have a friend in seminary, Dennis was his name, who he would always say, I told you, Johnny, a million times not to exaggerate. Told you a million times. He never told me a million. That's an exaggeration.

It's a joke. But I have said a lot of times, not a million, but a lot, that you never drift toward God. No one ever drifts towards God. There is no accidental obedience. To do the right thing takes energy and effort.

And Lot drifted. He drifted and he drifted the direction everybody drifts away from the Lord. To the point where instead of protecting the purity of his daughters, he was willing to compromise their purity to be right with his community, his culture, his tribe, his brethren. All right, that's enough bad news. Let's get some positive news.

You men are all feeling it right now. How are you doing, by the way? How are you doing in those areas? Like, I know you wouldn't hand your daughter to perverted people. I know that.

But is it possible that we hand our daughters, say, to completely unsupervised Internet so that a pervert might be able to get them right? There's ways to think about these things that are not directly handing your daughter to a physical man.

Are you training your sons and daughters to preserve purity? Men, husbands, fathers? Are you telling your men to preserve all women's purity? Not just their future courtship, relationship or dating relationship, or marriage relationship, but all women that you care about, all women's purity that you protect and preserve. And you care, as a man in your community to do the right thing.

Because the compromises can start small. They can start with watching maybe a TV show that sort of. I don't know amplifies or promotes sexual promiscuity. It can start with joking with your buddies at work about the things you shouldn't joke with. Compromise always starts small.

The drift, the slippery slope. Now let's move to the fun stuff and the strengthening stuff. I hope it's fun. There should still be conviction. But I hope it leaves you with do one of these on your way home or rent a car.

Go have a Father's Day and say, ah, I'm ready. I want to do what God wants. I want to be a man of God. So flex a little man. Be strong.

After this, let's see what God approves of. So here's the. Here's the system that God has put into place. We're all sinful. Adam blew it for all of us.

So God gives us grace. Then God calls us to obey with that grace as our fuel, as our ability. God gives us the ability through his grace of salvation primarily, as I haven't talked about salvation. But you know, the idea of being saving us when we were lost, we can't obey him. He saves us from our sin.

Now we can't obey Him. So we do obey. Then he approves of our obedience. Then he blesses our obedience. That's the structure.

And now when we go back to some of those men, we're going to see that. But we definitely see God caring about that. Like even in the New Testament, he tells Timothy to tell people not to rebuke an older man. There's a respect in honor of older men. Remember when John, we saw it in First John, when John rights to the fathers, this idea of God telling the church, now, Christians, now the community of faith, now, now post Christ's resurrection New Testament, he's telling men, these are the things that are important.

And your role as a father, as a leader, as a husband, as a head of house, as a man in your community, your role in your masculinity as a man of God is very important. The Bible makes that really clear. And God approves of some behavior while not approving of others. The first example I want to give you is Adam. Now you say, wait a second.

I'm thinking back on Adam's life after the fall, and I don't see that Adam did anything major or heroic or awesome. I don't see that Adam turned around like David did after his repentance. I don't see that. I don't see the same thing. So why Pastor Joni, would you use Adam?

Let me tell you why. And Adam knew his Wife again. And she bore a son and named him Seth. That's a really good name. I love that name.

For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed. Do you understand why that's important? Do you understand that Adam is seeing the tragedy that happened in his sons, the tragedy that happened with Cain killing Abel, but still believing the promise of God that his offspring, the seed of woman, would eventually crush the head of the serpent. And so God gives him another seed and the line of Seth becomes the line of Jesus. Do you see it?

So even though Adam failed and even though his sons failed, and you might say, well, that's it. If dad fails and the kids fail, write them off. That's a loss. It's done. Bankrupt.

It's over. No, he had another son and he knew the plan of God for that son. So God not only redeemed him, covered him with the clothing of the animals. Right? Killed animals to cover him and redeem him in that sense.

Some people say that that's atonement. It could be. I'll grant that for this morning, but for now I wouldn't want you to see is God was not done with Adam. And Adam knew that. And Adam listened to God and still planned and purposed and led his family in a way after the fall and after all of the devastation and still had a son and named that son Seth so that people would see in the future that the blessing would come through that family.

So Adam didn't give up. He failed in the worst way and ruined mankind. But then he also understood that God was going to save mankind through him and his offspring. Powerful, powerful story that Adam understands to a degree, whatever degree he was able to understand back there. Now, how about Abraham?

One thing that I don't think gets talked about enough, and maybe it does, and I just don't listen to the right people. But what doesn't get talked about enough, in my opinion is how, like, give me an adjective for somebody that's control. Y. Like a control freak. What's an adjective for that somebody?

Control. I'll make up my own words. I can do that. Okay. Somebody that has to control somebody that has to have their opinion.

Somebody that has to have their $0.02, their say so, their input. Somebody that has to be involved. They're not okay standing back and watching anything done. They got to be involved in it, have their hands in it. Well, remember how Adam, I mean, Abraham was that way with Ishmael, where him and Sarah did all of that and then Hagar did all of that because they were trying to control the situation, they were trying to manipulate things in their favor, they were trying to dictate to God the way things were going to go.

And then you contrast that with later in Abraham's life with Isaac. Think of the difference in grip that he had and the control he was trying to exert with Ishmael. And then how free and loose and open his hands were with Isaac. Isaac belongs to the Lord. And I'll let God do with Isaac whatever he wants to do with Isaac.

And we have the story. Take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you, sacrifice your son for me. And here's what you don't see in the text. In Genesis, what you don't see is Abraham begin a negotiation with God and say, wait a second, after everything we went through, I blew it already with Hagar. We did all of this and you promised a son.

And now I only have this real son, the one of promise and the one you said you were going to take care of. And now you want me to kill them. Abraham doesn't do that. Abraham learned his lesson. And instead of trying to manipulate things, or letting his wife run things, or letting his emotions run things, or letting his feelings of a hopeful future and investments pay off, instead of him trying to dictate reality in his own favor and telling God what to do, what does he do?

He trusts the Lord. And what does he say even if I kill him? He even believes that God can raise him from the dead. How different Abraham is on one side of that coin and the other. So men, I'm asking you, which Abraham are you?

Are you Abraham and Ishmael, Are you Abraham and Isaac? Are you Abraham? I need control. I have to be in control. And I'll be frustrated or anxious or have problems if I'm not in control.

And if it doesn't go the way I think it should go, and if it doesn't go how I plan it to go, and if it does, if you don't do the things I want to be done, or do you say, whatever the Lord says, that's what we're doing. Lord told me to take Isaac, so I'm taking Isaac. So you can ask yourself, because I think he passes that test with flying colors. You know, we never talk about Abraham in the 318 mighty men that go and rescue Lot. And all those things are the from the kings of the east and the kidnapping, incidentally, for a long time there were codes on the thermostats and they were.

It was 318. And that was why. It was because of the, the men that Abraham took into the fight. But we know we don't talk about Abraham as a soldier, do we? When we sing I am the Lord's army in the Lord's army as kids, we don't sing about Abraham, but he was a soldier, he was a fighter.

But we don't talk about that. What do we call him? The Father of the faithful. It was his faith that we see and admire and respect. You can go all the way with that and talk about Jesus saying, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.

He was so faithful that he had some understanding of the future Messiah that was coming and the promise that would be through his actual seed, Ishmael. I mean Isaac, not Ishmael. So take, take that into account that if God is saying in you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And Jesus says he has some idea. Paul says he believed the gospel, whatever that means, so he had some future idea.

And here he has this only son that is the son of promise, but he still obeys the Lord. It's powerful. It's so powerful and encouraging under all the pressure of the world. In one instance, he's immature and he takes matters into his own hands. And later, as he gets older, the Lord delivers over and over again and teaches him.

And now he says, no, we're just going to do what God says. That's how we're going to function as a family. How about Noah? Now Noah's story does not end well. I already said that.

So with Noah, we began with the end. So I'm not going to say that positively, that here's the good news with Noah. No, I'm going to rewind back in Noah's life. And this is mainly for the men who might be so discouraged, they might have fallen so hard or gotten so worn out or just apathetic, they just lost their fire. For those men, those ones who are struggling and the thought of having a rekindled, exuberant, vital faith, an active, energetic, God intentioned faith, the idea of pressing toward the mark, the idea of exerting energy for the Lord is pretty far off the map for them, pretty far off the radar.

They're not thinking that they can do that anymore. I'm old, I have fallen. I've messed up too many times, I'm tired, I've done it enough. That I'm worn out and I don't want to do it anymore. So if there's men in here who think I kind of look like Noah at the end of his life, I'm like, noah, this isn't going well, and it might not end well.

Well, I remind you how Noah started. Because the Bible says in Genesis 6, 8 that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And there is zero indicator from Scripture that God ever stopped seeing him through those lenses. So that Noah that's on in that tent and drunk, hear me, is still loved by God. He still possesses the grace of God.

God still loves him. Do you want to know why God still loves him? Because God never stops loving somebody that he loves. You and I are going to be talking a lot to Noah in heaven. We're going to be talking about building that boat.

We're going to be talking about the ridicule you got, Noah. How did you deal with that ridicule for all those years? And we're probably going to talk about this last event in his life, too. Noah, what happened? And Noah might say something like this and point over to Jesus and say, let's just talk about him.

So I am telling you, I want you to be encouraged. Don't give up. Don't quit, don't slip. And if you did, get back, get back in the grace of God. He didn't forget you and he didn't give up on you.

Then this one, this is when I did this one in the lady's message. I'm going to do it in the man's message too, where Paul calls Timothy a true son in the faith. He calls Titus a true son in the faith. So I'm using Paul, who probably didn't actually have children, to teach on Father's Day about fathers. Why?

Because there are spiritual fathers. You've heard me over the years. He's not here right now, but you've heard me over the years that we joke and call me Second Timothy because pastor's first son's name is Timothy and I'm Second Timothy. I know that technically you should be Second Timothy, but we say that because I'm the pastor under Pastor Heinrich, right? And I joke about that, but I'm not really joking about that because he was my spiritual father.

He was my mentor. He did teach me the faith of Christ, and I didn't have that in my life. There were no Christians in my life, zero Christians. The first time I ever talked to an adult Christian and understood what it meant that they were Christian, I was an adult. So, men, in this room, you might not be a biological father.

Men in this room, you might not have a Christian biological father. But that doesn't mean that we can't be spiritual fathers. That doesn't mean that we can't take people under our wing and mentor people and encourage people, strengthen them in the faith, like sons or the other way, to show respect and honor to your spiritual fathers, to respect them and honor them. And instead of what the world would do for them, maybe as they get older and dismiss them and discourage them, you young men honor your spiritual fathers, too. Respect them, encourage them.

I don't know if you know this, but it's hard getting old. And you can feel like sometimes the young people don't appreciate that you're getting old. So spiritual sons in this room and in life, be respectable and honorable to spiritual fathers. Men, be a spiritual father to someone in and around your circle of influence. They might not have a good spiritual father in their life, and they might need you.

The last one of the morning. And my favorite one of all of them, I picked favorites. Maybe I'm not supposed to do that, is Joseph. You know Joseph. I don't mean Joseph in the Old Testament.

I mean Jesus. Adopted dad. Maybe you call him his stepdad. Because we know who his father was, right? The reason I love Joseph.

You want to talk? I know it's daunting. I told you, I'm a dad. Sympathizer. Men, it's hard to be a dad.

It's hard to stand as a father. It's hard to discipline your children, isn't it? You don't want to discipline them, but it's hard. It's hard sometimes to make choices in your family where you feel like the lone voice, where you say, our family has to go this way because it's the right thing to do. And the family might be saying, well, why do we have to do it the right thing?

Why can't we do what everybody else is doing? There's just pressure and provision where you have to go to work every day. Some of you kind of look at me cross sometimes, strange, when I say things like, thank you for going to work every day. Like, that's a weird thing to thank somebody for. No, it isn't.

It's hard to get up every day and go punch a clock and go work for your family. To not get personal fulfillment out of your work, to not be rewarded well with compensation, to have your body breaking down. If you do a physical kind of job, it can be discouraging and hard to be a father. Well, hey, how would you dad like to have to raise the Messiah? And I know what you're thinking, well it'd be a lot easier than raising the kids I have because Jesus always did what was right, you know.

But think of the pressure and I'm not talking about pressure for discipline and those things because Jesus didn't need that. He was the best kid ever. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about being a man worthy of the Messiah's respect. Being a man that when Jesus looked at Joseph, Jesus would say, I'm happy to honor Joseph, my father.

He took his job. The Messiah took the same job as his father. What kind of man must Joseph have been to have Jesus love and respect? To where Jesus didn't say I didn't have a very good father except the one I had in heaven. No, his earthly father was like his father in heaven.

I can't wait to meet Joseph. I can't wait to talk to him. How could you do that? Do you want to know why? Because I have a low disposition.

You know, I've been candid with you. I don't think highly of myself. I think very low of myself. I have said over the years, and I mean it, that I can't believe I get to be my kids friend, let alone be their father. I love my kids.

I'm so honored and proud of my kids. But I don't feel worthy to be their father. That's hard. And you want to be worthy. You want to be respected.

You want to be a man of God. And maybe you failed and you've been weak. And I looked at Joseph and think I couldn't be Jesus, dad. I couldn't. It's hard to be his servant.

It's hard to think about looking Jesus in the eye as his servant, let alone his father. But there's Joseph shining. Joseph gets that message from the angel. Joseph follows the word of God. Joseph protects that family.

Joseph gets them into safety out of Egypt. Joseph takes care of them. Joseph is a man of God. And I know we use the Old Testament Joseph as a great example of Christ likeness. But don't forget to use the New Testament Joseph as an example of godly manhood.

Joseph was a man of God. And I can't wait to meet him. I want to be like Joseph.

Now Joseph still had his hands full. Remember the other brothers sometimes bump their heads and things like that. So Joseph didn't only have the easy time with Jesus, he also had James and Jude. And you know, the other guys. You ever feel weak, men, you ever get discouraged?

There are all kinds of dads, lots of in the Bible, too. But the call of being a head of a home is a high calling. Our world is trying to dismantle it. It's trying to embarrass it. It's trying to make you feel bad for being a man of God, for leading your home, for expecting obedience and submission in your home.

The world is going to try to destroy you, disintegrate you from underneath. It's trying to take your legs out from under you. Don't let it fight for God's things. And the last challenge I have is for the rest of the people in the room that aren't the dads I'm talking to. One of the hardest things I've watched over the years, it's so difficult.

It's hard, is when a man has fallen or been weak or didn't do what he was supposed to do, and he loses the trust and respect of his family. And then that family decides they're going to be the kind of people that hold grudges. And no matter how hard that man tries to lead his family, no matter how many times that man says, I'm trying to be different, I'm trying to serve the Lord, his family won't see him in that light. And I'll tell you, family, you need to see him in that light. You need to give room for that man to grow.

You need to be on the man's team. And you might try to tell me right now, he doesn't deserve me to be on his team. Did the Bible say, honor your father and your mother when he deserves it? Did it say, submit to your husband when he deserves it? No.

Those are commands. So help heads of the homes be heads of the homes, please. I'm telling you, I can tell you as a man who is very, very grateful for his family, it makes all the difference. When your family let you be the head of your home, helps you be the head of your home. It makes all, all the difference.

In fact, it made such a difference that I would have the audacity to walk up here and preach at you this morning. You understand? The Bible disqualifies me if my house is not in order, but my house is in order not because of me, but because my family does what God calls them to do. And I'm challenging you. Families do what God calls you to do, too.

If dad wants to have a meeting and say, let's get our house in order. Family. You don't say, really, you. You're going to get this house in order. You say, God can do anything with our family.

If he can do that with Abraham, if he can do that with Adam, if he can do that with Joseph, he can do that in our family. So get on board with a redemption story in your family if you need to. Men, go live what God has called you to live and be a man of God. Let's pray. Father, we're thankful.

I am. I'm very thankful for these kinds of texts. Very thankful that you never give up on people you put your hand on. I thank you personally for that. Me, I thank you for never giving up on me.

And I'd ask, Father, that our church and the people who are hearing this would embrace the call of manhood. All of them, every person in here would support biblical manhood, that we might be able to win back some things lost and some things this culture is trying to destroy. And our church and these people would be biblical and be like the good men of God who are redeemed and serve you in Jesus name. Amen. Will you stand, please?