God Makes Dads Better

Pastor Mike emphasizes that God transforms fathers into better leaders, protectors, and role models when they place Him at the center of their lives. By examining biblical figures like Adam, Abraham, and David, he illustrates that while no parent is perfect, divine favor follows those who choose to trust and obey despite their shortcomings. He stresses that a man's primary responsibility is to foster a godly household where his wife and children can flourish spiritually. Mothers and wives are highlighted as essential partners in this mission, often providing the necessary correction and support to keep the family on a righteous path. Ultimately, his message serves as a call to action for men to resist worldly influences and reclaim their roles as kingdom-minded leaders. Through prayer and submission to the Holy Spirit, fathers are encouraged to invest in the future by instilling lasting integrity and faith in the next generation.

Transcript

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We I entitled this message and I we we've talked about this before, but it's called God Makes Dads Better. Amen. Who's who here is a father? Raise your hands real quick. Father, maybe your grandfather, uncle. Amen. So God makes dads better. God makes grandfathers better. God makes uncles better. God makes men better. Amen. God makes people better. Because when you involve God in your life, when he is at the center of your life, he makes you better. Amen? And then he transforms your life through the power of the Holy Spirit. Things that don't belong in your life, he begins to weed out. When you surrender yourself to him, the Holy Spirit begins to move in and takes those things that don't belong there and kicks them out. Thank the Lord that we have a God who's living, who is dwells in us, who is powerful, and has a desire to clean you up so you could be a reflection of who he is. Amen. I just want to encourage you this morning. Maybe your dad is not here with you this morning. Maybe he's gone home to be with the Lord wherever he's at. Just remember that you have a heavenly father who is the ultimate father. Amen. Amen. But if you look out through the Bible, you'll find that there is no shortage of stories that talk of fatherhood and what it means to be a father. Stories of praying, stories of protecting, stories of sacrifice, stories of adopting, stories of strengthening, stories of feeding, disciplining, teaching, discipling, training their children. All through the Bible, you see these stories of dads who were present in their child's life. And today, as we celebrate and honor our fathers, we look to, we look at fathers who throughout the course of scripture have had to make some tough choices in their lives. And one of the tough choices that they may have, that they that they've had to make is putting Christ above everything. Or serving the Lord above everything. Because if you go through the Bible, all those men who were faithful in the Bible, that's what they were. That's who they were. They trusted in God, they obeyed God. We talked about this about Joseph in the Bible. The favor of God was all upon Joseph. Why? Because he trusted and obeyed him. I want the favor of God all over me. I want the favor of God all over my family. I want the favor of God all over you to be blessed. But you have to trust and obey and surrender yourself to him. And that's what we're going to look at this morning. Some examples this morning. One is on the first dad we look at is the first dad ever created was Adam. He was the first man, he was the first human father. And we see that Adam messed up. He messed up big time with his wife Eve. They messed up, and they brought this curse of sin all over this earth. And you see Adam straying from God's example, and the result is bringing into this world sin and disobedience. And because of disobedience, Adam was left to deal with what? The tragedy of his own son killing his other son. What a tragedy that is. And if you look at the life of Adam, it teaches us about what? It teaches us about consequences of our actions. There's consequences for the things that you do. There's consequences for the good things that you do, there's consequences for the bad things you do. So Adam had to learn about those consequences of his actions and the absolute necessity of obeying God. Listening to God's voice, doing what God tells you to do. So God is looking for fathers who freely choose to listen to him, to obey him, to submit to his love. See, godly fathers take responsibility for their own failures and shortcomings. When you're obedient to his voice, listen to this, when you're obedient to his voice, he promises to bless and protect you and your family and your household. That is a promise that you can stand on. 1 Kings chapter 2, verse 3 says this. Do you hear that this morning? Keep those things. Why? So that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn. We talked about the favor of God. You want the favor of God in your life? Here's what you need to do: the duty of the Lord your God to walk in his ways, to keep his statues, keep his commandments, keep his ordinances and his testimonies. Why? So that you may succeed in everything that you do. How many people want to succeed in everything that you do this morning? I know I do. So we learn with Adam there's consequences for your decisions, there's consequences for your actions. And I have a great example of that. A couple of days ago, I had to apologize to my kids. There was some fighting going on late at night. They were supposed to be in bed and they were arguing and doing things that they weren't supposed to do. And guess what? Daddy came out with patience. No, daddy came out like a bear. Get to bed. And it was like WWE, kids flying over there, kids flying over there. No, it wasn't that bad. I'm kidding. That did not happen. But I overreact, way, over, way overreacted to what was going on. I just heard noise. I heard this, I heard them supposed, I heard they were so they were supposed to be in bed and I heard things going on that there wasn't supposed to be going on. Basically, they weren't being quiet and they were arguing, and so daddy came out and laid down the law a little too harsh. And Mama Bear had to remind me of how to correctly respond to those situations and thank the Lord for a godly wife in my life. Amen. And thank the Lord for a godly wife in your life as well. So I had to walk into their room, still tell them what they did wrong in a loving way, but also apologize to them. Consequences for your actions. You don't want to do things and say things that you can't take back. It's those things are important. Does life, you know, sometimes we're human. Yes, we get angry. Our kids drive us nuts sometimes, and you just want to. But we can't do i. We have to do i in love. Right? Because we're we are fathers. We're supposed to be those leaders. We're teaching them how to react to situations. And in that moment, that was not a way, I was showing them what not to do, basically. That's what was happening. But there's consequences for actions. The next father that I want to look at this morning is I want to look at Abraham and Isaac. And what could be more frightening? Not only being a first-time father, right? First-time dad's here. Could be a little bit scary. But now Abraham is a first-time father, but he also has the promise that after him an entire nation is gonna be come, is gonna come out of his line. What an awesome responsibility. And that was the mission that God gave to him. Abraham was a leader, he had tremendous faith in God, and passing one of the most difficult tests God ever gave to a father, he was willing to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. And we talked about that a few weeks ago. Actually, it's a couple months ago. Was Abraham perfect? No. Did Abraham make mistakes? Absolutely. Did God still use Abraham despite of those mistakes? Yes, he did. And that's why I want to encourage you with this morning, and not just dads, but everyone here, moms, dads, whoever. You don't have to wait to be perfect to do with the will of the Lord, because guess what? You're never gonna be perfect. You don't have to know 20 scripture verses before you go out and witness to somebody. Do you understand that? You don't have to be this perfect person to be able to minister to someone because if you wait to be that perfect person, you're never gonna miss all those opportunities. What you need to do is get in his word. You need to learn his word, you need to be in his in prayer and ask the Lord, put someone in your life that you can minister to. That's how you be a useful servant. So that's how you be a useful vessel for the Lord. It's just asking the Lord to use you. Work through me, Father. Work through me, work through me if it's with my own family, if it's someone at work, if it's with the friends, someone who doesn't know if it's at the store. That's how God wants to use you. He wants to use you when you're willing for him to work through you. So you don't have to be this perfect person, and Abraham was not this perfect person. God wants to use you in spite of your shortcomings. He will even rescue and support us through our foolish mistakes. Why? Because genuine faith pleases God. Did you hear that this morning? I'm gonna repeat that, and I want you to grasp that. Genuine faith pleases God. And look at his son Isaac. Isaac was the fulfillment of the promise that God gave to Abraham and Sarah. Isaac could have easily resented his father for trying to kill him. But he didn't. Could you imagine the next time Abraham asked Isaac to go somewhere alone? Hey, uh hey, Isaac, let's go fishing. No, I ain't going with you. Uh-uh. Hey, Isaac, let's go, uh, let's go tend to the sheep. Uh no, I'm gonna hang out with mom for a little bit. Could you imagine that next Father's Day? Abraham, uh Isaac gives him his Father's Day card. He hears a knock on the tent. Dad, happy Father's Day. Is the knife still around? The card reads like this, and I wrote this. I thought it was pretty funny when I wrote it. And maybe you'll find it. It says, Dear dad, you are the best dad ever, even though you tried to kill me. I like the way you take care of the sheep. I want to tend just like yours someday. I want to be like you just when I grow up, except I'm not gonna try and kill my children. Love Isaac. P.S. Thank you for not sacrificing me. But Isaac didn't hate his father. It was quite the opposite. Isaac was an obedient son. If anything, he learned from his father Abraham. He learned that the important lesson of listen to this, the important lesson of trusting and obeying God. Obeying the voice of God. You understand that? Even though he was strapped to that altar and his father was gonna kill him, he saw the example of a man obeying the voice of the Lord, and then the Lord providing a way out of that situation. And that was a lesson that Isaac learned and passed down to his son. So, how many know that God wants to trust, wants us to trust and obey him, so we will benefit from his blessings? Did you know that? Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 through 6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understandings. So first we need to trust in the Lord with all of our heart, not just part of it. Everything that we have, everything that we are, we need to surrender and trust to him. And we're not gonna lean on our own understandings, we're not gonna do things the way the world thinks. We're not gonna do things the way this person's doing things. We're not gonna lean on our own understanding and try and fix it our way. But instead, verse 6 says, In all thy ways, what? Acknowledge him. Everything that I do, every place that I go, I'm recognizing the power of God, the presence of God in my life, and what's gonna happen, and he shall direct your paths. Amen. Amen. See, one of the most important stories of struggle in the Bible is the story of King David and his family. Have anybody read the story of King David? What a soap opera that was. Do they soap? I don't know. I think I might be aging myself. Do they still have soap operas? I don't know, who cares? Or reality TV, whatever it is. King David's family, King David, he had a crazy, he had a crazy family, he had a crazy life. And you look at his life and you say, where's God in all that? We see David as a teenager, as a shepherd, he trusted God. And because of his trust in God, it led him to defeat a lion, it led him to defeat a bear, and eventually to kill Goliath, to kill a giant and face a giant. He becomes a commander in Saul's army and he wins many, many battles. In fact, in the Bible it says Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his tens of thousands. So he put his trust in God even when he was on the run from his own father-in-law, King Saul. Did David sin greatly? Absolutely. So, how could the Bible call David a man after his own heart? How does that happen? When David sins and he does things that don't glorify God, what made him a man after God's own heart? Well, I think there's two reasons, two important reasons. Number one, David recognized when he messed up. Do you understand that this morning? Do you hear that this morning? David recognized when he messed up. He listened to the conviction of the Holy Spirit upon his life. And he repented and he found forgiveness. See, it's one thing to recognize that you did something wrong, and it's a whole other thing to realize I'm going to repent from that situation. I'm not going to do that thing. I'm going to turn away from those things that don't belong in my life and I'm going to get rid of them. And you can do it through the power of the Holy Spirit. So when David messed up, he repented and asked for forgiveness. That's number one. Actually, in Psalms 51, it's a whole thing about repentance, about David writing the psalm about repentance and asking for forgiveness says, Create in me a clean heart, oh God. That's where we get that. I want to have a clean heart before the Lord. I don't want things in my life that separate me, because that's what sin does. It separates you from the things of God. I don't want those things in my life. And you have to tell them to get out of your life. Sin doesn't belong in your life. If you want to be a godly father, a godly parent, a godly person, get rid of sin in your life. It doesn't belong there. Ask for forgiveness, repent of those things, and move on. The second thing that David did, David did whatever God wanted him to do. He trusted and obeyed God. And we see just like Joseph, the favor of God was all over David. You're going to think of how many battles David was in fighting for the Lord. What are the odds of not getting hurt or wounded or having some major thing happen to you when you're in battle with swords and spears and arrows? Not like today, you know, you someone a mile away or close up like with a gun. No, you're in their face with a sword. Swiping someone with a sword or a spear. Heavy casualties. And not once did the Bible say that David even was injured. Could you imagine that? The favor of God upon his life so heavily that when he is in battle, he's totally protected. That's why David says in Psalms 28, he says, The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusts in him and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him. David recognized that God is a shield. He is the strength. And his heart leaps for joy because the presence of God is in his life. And just like you and I, we should be, we should be shouting for joy every day of our lives, not just in church, that we have the presence of God, that we have the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, filling us, protecting us, leading us, guiding us. We should be joyful, joyful in situations where it seems like there's no way out. Because we know that he is going to provide a way out. Doors will be opened, walls will come down, he will bring you through those things, those hard things in life. Because he is your shield. In the presence of God, it brings favor, it brings joy, it brings blessings, it brings promises. David recognized that, and we have to recognize that as well. So, what does it mean to be a godly husband, a godly father, a godly man? What does this person do? He's obedient to God and he fears him. The fear of the Lord, the Bible says, is the beginning of wisdom. The first group of people in your life, listen to this, the first group of people in your life that ought to know that you take God seriously isn't just outside people. It's your family. You hear that this morning. Your family should know that you serve the Lord. If they don't know it, then it doesn't matter what everybody else thinks about you. You ought to be a kingdom man, you ought to be a godly husband, a kingdom husband, and a kingly father, a kingdom father at home first. See, God created the family. We just go through the series, not just for us to be happy and not just for not for us not to be living alone. He created family in order to expand his kingdom. Psalms 128, 1 through 4 says, and we're gonna read the first part of 6, too. It says, How joyful are those who fear the Lord, all who follow his ways. You will enjoy the fruit of your labor, how joyful and prosperous you will be. Do you hear that this morning? How joyful are those who fear the Lord, and who what? Follow in his ways. How joyful and prosperous you will be. Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine flourishing within your home. Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table. That's the Lord's blessing for those who fear him. Do you hear that this morning? The Lord promises that when you serve him, your family is going to flourish. When you instill the things of God in your family and in your household, your family will flourish. We need to fear God by putting him first in our lives, in our home, at the center. And the result is your wife is going to flourish, your children are going to flourish. And unfortunately, here's the thing: most people don't realize this. Most people get married in church. And that's the last time you see them in church. They just view the ceremony as a formality. Many people view marriage like this, as a three-ring circus. There's the engagement ring, there's a wedding ring, and then there's a suffering. That's not what marriage is supposed to be. That's not what a godly marriage is supposed to be. That's how marriage is viewed by the world. See, Paul talks about the role of a husband, and he says this a man should love his wife like Christ loved the church. He says in Ephesians that just as Christ died and sacrificed for the church, this is the way we are to love our wives. We are to love them like a savior who loved us. And what does a savior do? Bill talked about this a little bit ago. He sacrifices. He sacrifices for his household. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he gave something up. He gave his life up. Why? To gain us. See, a man is to love his wife like Christ loved the church who gave himself up for her. A man ought to love his wife like he loves his own body. That is why it's so important for the husband, the father, to establish in their home what Joshua says in chapter 24, verse 15. And we know this verse. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Do you hear that this morning? You got to get that inside of you. I want you to say that with me. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. As for me and my house, this is what we're going to do. I can't tell you what your house to do. I can encourage you to do it, but you need to take a stand and say, I am going to serve the Lord in this house. God is the center of this home. I'm so glad that I had godly parents growing up. And they followed these instructions. Growing up, it didn't matter what we thought was right. It's what God was, it was what we thought, what they thought that God was doing, or what how God was right. I'll give an example. When it was time for church, the Susie kids were there. When it was time for Sunday school, we were there. It was morning service, we were there. Royal Rangers, my brother and I, we were there. Michinettes, my sister was there. Youth group, my sister was there. And I was there, and my brother was there. There was a school here. Guess where we went to school? Here. When there was VBS, you went to VBS. When you were too old for VBS, you helped out in VBS. We were in church and they were instilling the importance of going to church and being involved in church. And at the time I didn't understand why they were doing this. Maybe, you know, because you're a kid. But as a parent, I know why they were they wanted us to be so involved. So they could have a few hours by themselves. Of course, I'm kidding a little bit. That is partly true. But they knew how important church was and being involved in church and what it meant to be involved with church. Sacrificing to put us in a school where we don't have to go to a place where they look down upon serving the Lord. But instead they invest in serving the Lord. Sacrificing to get us to places so that we're in a place where we can be spiritually fed. And not just at home, but in a place with our peers. And as a kid, sometimes you're like, I don't want to go to church, but he didn't care. You want to sleep over your friend's house? That's fine, but you better be in service the next morning. He would tell us you're too tired to go to church. Well, you better get up and go to church. Let me help motivate you. Resurrection. No. The importance of church. And my parents are probably a little mortified right now because I know my mom is always every time I use them as an example after service. Why did you have to tell them that? They're gonna think we're crazy people. Well, you were crazy people, you're crazy people for the Lord, and now we're crazy people for the Lord. Amen. Here's the thing. One major goal of Satan is to destroy your relationship with God. The other goal is to destroy families. And you see that through the world today. He's not trying to destroy the family just to make people unhappy. Satan is trying to destroy the family because he's trying to kill the future. He's trying to kill the future church. See, all these kids that you see here running around, wrecking the place, wrecking the chairs, throwing trash everywhere, spilling things on the floor, throwing things out in the field that don't belong out there, trashing the place. Come here during a school day. Those are the future church, believe it or not. Those are the next leaders of the church. Those are the next people that are going to be raising their kids in church. Chris, Allie, Brady, Jamie, all those new dads and moms. The next generation coming up. It's so important that you invest in your child's life. Invest the things of the Lord in your child's life. Showing them what it is to be a godly father. Showing them what it is to be a godly husband. Showing them what it is to be a godly mother. Showing them what it is to be a godly, godly wife. And you only do this by surrendering yourself to the things of God and making God real in your life. If you look at the spiritual state of our country and our world, our future is being destroyed. Why? Because families are under attack. Families are being destroyed, but our families are being destroyed because men, husbands, fathers are not leading them. They're not kingdom fathers. They're not kingdom husbands. They're not kingdom-minded people. There are some things that only a man can instill into a son or a boy. And there are some things only a man can instill into a young lady and their daughter. Fathers teach your sons how to treat a lady, how to be respectful, how to open the car door, how to pay for the date or the movie or whatever it might be. And tell them if they try any funny business, get out of that place and run away from them. Teach your daughters how a man should act on a date. And if he tries any funny business, give him a karate chop to the throat. Get away from them. They don't belong there doing that. We need to teach our children. See, being involved in your children's life needs to be there physically, but more importantly, we need to be there spiritually. See, when you're involved in your child's life, that means your present presence is felt in their life. And when your presence is felt in your life, and when you have the presence of God in your life, they're gonna feel that presence of God in their life as well. That's why it's so important, and I'll repeat it over and over again, that you have a relationship with Jesus Christ. No matter what you might be facing in your life, don't neglect yourself from getting into his word, reading his word, memorizing his word, praying to him, communicating with him, asking the Holy Spirit to fill you and lead you and guide you. And it's every day of the week to being disciplined into doing that. We have to be a disciplined people. We have to be a people who is not ashamed of the things of God. Because this world doesn't want to talk about God. This world does not want to lift up the name of Jesus. But we have to be those people who are going against the grain and doing that. And it can be tough sometimes. But with God, all things are possible. Amen. And as we're closing this morning, we need to remember that a father's first responsibility after he submits to God is his home. It's his family, his leadership with the people who know him the best and see him the most. The Bible makes it clear that when a kingdom man comes home, he comes home to his first job, his first priority. This job is to see your wife flourish and your children growing up and become responsible Christian adults. Because together with your wife, you're teaching them principles of responsibility, principles of godliness, of integrity, of leadership. You're teaching your boys what it is to be a godly man. You're teaching your girls what it means to be a godly woman, and with your wife, they're seeing you provide and correct and discipline for their failures. But more importantly, you're doing this with love and encouragement to build them up for their success. Amen. See, when fathers have a desire to glorify God in all that they do, they become better parents. Amen. I'm gonna ask all the men to stand up, and I want you all the men to come on up to the altar this morning. All the men, even if you're not a dad, come on down. Because, like I said, you're you're a father to a lot of kids here. This is your church family. Don't be afraid, come on up closely. We got quite a few here. Come on up close to the altar. Young men, come on down. Anthony Lincoln, come on down. Ben, come on down, bud. Any young men in this room, too? Come on down. I don't know what, but we got we got some good-looking guys in this church. I'm gonna challenge you this morning. I need you to do something for me. I need you to raise your right hand. And before we challenged this morning, I'm just reminded of my father-in-law, PT. And you can put your hands down, we'll do it in a second. You're gonna be up there with this for a second. When he was at Sarah's house before he passed away, there was some people, you know, peep many, some of you were here. There's some of you were there, and he was challenging them. He would make them raise their right hand. And I'm gonna challenge you this morning because I'm gonna tell you the same thing that he told us. If you don't do this, you're a double bum. That's what he would, that's what he told us. If you don't do this, you're a double bum. He told my father that, he told Anthony Rossetti that, a couple other people, if you don't do this, you're a bum. Don't be a bum this morning. Be a child of God. I want you to raise your right hand this morning. And I want you to repeat after me, it's very simple. I want you to say, I'm going to make my home God's home. I want you to say that again. I'm gonna make my home God's home. One more time. Amen. I'm gonna ask all the ladies, come on down behind them. We're gonna pray for them this morning. And you can reach your hand on someone here. We're gonna pray for all our dads, all our men here. That God begins to touch them. That God, that we begin to declare in our homes that we're gonna choose God in our homes. We're gonna choose you this day whom we're gonna serve. We're gonna serve the awesome God, amen. We're gonna serve a powerful God. We're gonna bring God into our homes and declare it in our homes that we serve a God, the God of gods. There might be other people out there who don't want to do this, but it doesn't matter because we are declaring that we are gonna serve the Lord. We're gonna serve the Lord in our homes, we're gonna serve the Lord in our marriages, we're gonna serve the Lord when we invest in our kids' lives and how we raise them. We're gonna serve the Lord um in our in our jobs, we're gonna serve the Lord when we're with our friends, we're gonna serve the Lord even when we're alone and nobody is watching. Hallelujah, Jesus. Come on, men, raise your hands to him, just begin to praise him this morning. Get a touch of the Holy Spirit this morning. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Lord. Ask him to fill you with his presence this morning. We need godly men, we need kingdom-minded men in this place. Just think the world changed with 12 men. This whole world was changed because the 12 men were obedient to the voice of the Lord. Look how many men who we could turn this world upside down with just the men in this room. Hallelujah, Lord. We pray for all the dads out there this morning. We pray for all the men out there this morning, young and old, Father. We pray that your hand would continue to be upon them, Father. We pray that you would fill them with your presence right now in the name of Jesus. Touch them, Lord. Anything in their lives that doesn't belong there, Father, I pray that you would rip those things out right now in the name of Jesus. Place you, help them to place you first in their lives, Lord. Help them to surrender to you, Father. Help them to have a desire to know who you are, Father. Help them to get into your word and to study your word this morning. Help them to have a desire to reach out to those around them, Lord. Help them remind them they don't have to be this perfect person, but they just need to trust and obey and surrender, and you will transform their lives, Father. Hallelujah, Jesus. Ladies, begin to pray for them out loud this morning, all over this place this morning. Hallelujah, Jesus, hallelujah, Lord. If there's someone here who doesn't know who you are, Father, I pray that you would soften their hearts to receive you this morning. Help them to have a desire to know who you are, Father. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah, Lord. All over our leaders this morning, all over our men this morning, all over our women. I pray for a revival to start to break out in this place. Hallelujah, Jesus. Praise you, Lord. Help us to be leaders. Help us to be examples, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah, Father. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Praise you, Lord. Come on, let's give Him praise this morning. God is good, Amen. Come on, I say God is good all the time. Praise the Lord. But we thank you for your presence, Lord. We thank you that you continue to move upon us, Lord. We thank you for all our dads out there to pray a special touch and anointing upon them. We thank you that we appreciate them this day, Lord. We praise you in your precious name. Amen.