Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries |
Father’s Day message on the importance of wisdom. Proverbs.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
“Well, it’s just like Mother’s Day only you don’t spend so much.”
“A father is someone who carries pictures where his money used to be.”
The phone company tells us that calls on Father’s Day are not as high in number as calls on Mother’s Day and most of them are collect.
1TH 2:7 – a mother tenderly cares for her own children.
TIT 2:3-4 – the older spiritual women are to encourage the young women to love their children.
1TH 2:11 – fathers are to exhort and encourage, their own children.
A proverb is wise in content, and concise in form.
It is a “brief to the point” profound statement for the purpose of instruction…brief to the point that they might be remembered.
Much of today’s instruction is…to be a friend, listen to your son, go places with your son, take him to a ball game, have fun, follow his interests…etc.
“Teach your son trivial things, you’ll raise a trivial father who will teach his son trivial things.”
“Teach your son deep things, you’ll raise a son who becomes a father who teaches his son deep things.”
The primary of a duty of a father is to teach the principles concerning the natural life and the spiritual life.
Wisdom dominates the Proverbs.
Sometimes the word instruction appears; sometimes the word understanding appears; sometimes the word discretion appears.
Wisdom means not simply thought but conduct.
It means to live virtuously and righteously.
The book of Proverbs is the ultimate legacy that a father could leave behind as an inheritance to his children, and that is wisdom.
2CO 13:5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!
1. Fear God.
On the one hand, it has a positive aspect, which is a reverential respect, a reverential awe.
He orders providentially all the circumstances of human history and the universe for His good, because He is a sovereign God.
The other side of it; we must teach them to fear God’s displeasure…to fear God’s right to punish, God’s right to chasten, God’s right to judge.
In that awe of reverencing God’s holy character there is a healthy sense of apprehension because I know as a holy God He has a right to discipline anyone of us, including me.
Whatever patterns of worship you have established for yourself, you have established for your children, and they will likely establish for their children.
If a father is completely focused on God, God is going to guard his life; He’s going to straighten our path.
Trust – batach = body slamming or casting all your worries upon the Lord; it originally meant to lie helplessly, face down.
“I not only am humbled in Your presence but I bow in Your presence submissively to anything that You would choose to do, that’s how much I trust You.”
Proverbs says fearing the Lord is more profitable than wealth; it brings about life. It keeps one from evil. It results in riches and honor and it results humility.
Proverbs says that those who fear God sleep satisfied and are untouched by evil.
2. Guard your Mind.
Kindness – chesed = love, loyalty, faithfulness, fidelity, and kindness.
TLJC – “It’s not what goes into a man that defiles him; it’s what comes out of a man that defiles him.”
The father has the task of training his child’s heart and programming it with truth, with virtue, with faithfulness, with honesty, with integrity, with loyalty, with love.
That means we have to protect our children from what they are being exposed to.
The positive, we must make sure that they are exposed to what we want to fill their mind and heart.
3. Obey your Parents.
“Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,” – repeated, PRO 1:8; 2:1-3; 4:1; 4:10.
Later on in Proverbs it says he has rebellion in his heart, drive it far from him with a rod.
It is for the purpose of breaking self-will, for the purpose of removing foolishness, for the purpose of delivering the child from spiritual death, and for the purpose of making him a delight to his parents.
A disobedient child not only becomes a spiritual disaster, but also an anti-social personality and very often a criminal adult.
4. Select Your Companions or Friends Wisely.
1CO 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”
Rarely does a child have the capability to elevate himself beyond the group in which he functions.
5. Control Your Body.
Any wise father who has any sense at all realizes that young men, especially, are going to develop passions that can lead them in to tragedy upon tragedy unless they learn how to control their body, their physical desires.
Don’t give your years to the cruel one and let strangers be filled with your strength and your hard-earned goods go the house of an alien.
6. Enjoy your Wife.
What is forbidden prior to marriage, is exalted afterwards.
As people would be considered foolish who just threw water in the streets, you are considered an absolute fool if you just go out in the street and spread your streams everywhere.
1. Teach your children to fear your God.
2. Guard their Mind.
3. Obey their Parents.
4. Select their Companions or Friends Wisely.
5. Control their Body.
6. Enjoy their Wife.
7. Watch their Words.
8. Pursue their Work.
9. Manage their Money.
10. Love their Neighbor.