Fathers matter to God. The relationship of fathers and their kids really matters to God. What is a good father? This message has good things to say about all that and more.

1. Date
Fathers
A Time to Remember & Honor

2. GodThe Father
✤ The central Person of the Bible, of Heaven & of the entire
universe
✤ Has All Power, All Authority & Responsibility for All
✤ The Source & Protector of All Life and Goodness
✤ Jesus’ favorite title for God: 165x in Gospels
✤ Created us to be His beloved children forever
✤ His Fatherhood is not a metaphor.

3. Fathers Matter
to Our Father
✤ Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is
right. Honor your father and mother (which is the
first commandment with a promise), so that it may be
well with you, and that you may live long on the
earth. (Eph.6: 1-3. Exodus 20:12)
✤ Big promises to support a critical command.

4. Dads &Their Kids
MatterTo God
✤ "He will restore the
hearts of the fathers to
their children and the
hearts of the children
to their fathers, so that
I will not come and
smite the land with a
curse.”(Malachi 4:6)
✤ Last words of OT!

5. Date
Fathers
Why They Are So Important

6. LifeWithout Dad
✤ 24 million children in America live in a fatherless home.
✤ 40% of students in grades 1-12 come from homes with no biological father in
them.
✤ 71% of teenage pregnant mothers have no father in the home.
✤ 71% of high school drop outs have no father present.
✤ A child is 4 times more likely to live in poverty if there is no dad in the
home.
✤ Most convicts did not have a close relationship with a dad
✤ Fatherless children do not do as well in school, work or life

7. Life Close to Dad
✤ Kids do better in school, work and life
✤ They are more emotionally stable
✤ They tend to have stronger marriages
✤ They can relate to a loving God more easily

8. The Legacy of Dads
✤ Girls will try to marry someone like their dad
✤ Boys will try to be like their dad
✤ Girls will respond to their husbands like they did to
their dad
✤ Boys will treat their wives like dad treated his mom
✤ Kids will see God the Father as they saw their dad

9. Date
Fathers
What Makes a Good Father?

10. a Good Father
✤ Stays close to the Lord
✤ Prays for his children often
✤ Loves his wife well
✤ Is willing to be #3

11. Date
The BestThing
I ever did for my children

12. Stay close to the Lord
✤ The best fathers are devoted sons of Our Father
✤ Children need to see the real God in their dad
✤ Dad’s need the Holy Spirit to be wise & strong
✤ Dads who love like God does, produce great kids

13. Date
The BestThing
I have Ever Done With My Children

14. Prayed ForThem Often
✤ I knew I could not be all the dad they needed
✤ God had to make up for what I lacked
✤ I was responsible for them, but…
✤ Only God could guide and protect them well
✤ So I prayed early each morning for our children

15. When fathers Pray
✤ Fathers have the authority to bless their children
✤ The protective prayers of a father are powerful
✤ Kids welcome the prayers of their father
✤ The devil rightly fears the prayers of a father

16. Date
LoveYourWifeWell
The Foundation a Strong Family

17. LoveYourWifeWell
✤ Defer to her whenever you can:
✤ “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also
loved the church and gave Himself up for
her…”Eph. 5:25

18. LoveYourWifeWell
✤ Praise her to your children:
✤ Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband
also, and he praises her.” (Prov. 31:28)
✤ Confess & forgive quickly. Fight for peace!
✤ “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go
down on your anger…” (Eph. 4:26)

19. LoveYourWifeWell
✤ Study her to know how to please her:
✤ “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you
live with your wives, and treat them with respect
as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the
gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your
prayers.” (1 Peter 3:7)

20. LoveYourWifeWell
✤ Do whatever you can to make her holy & happy
✤ “So husbands ought also to love their own wives as
their own bodies…for no one ever hated his own
flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ
also does the church…” (Eph. 5:28-29)

21. FathersWho Know
How to Be #3
✤ Willing to put God #1, family #2 and self #3
✤ Lay down their lives for their wife & kids
✤ Value family > themselves
✤ Pay the price to bless & protect them
✤ Are willing to suffer to make sure they don’t

22. Fathers Who Knew How to Be #3

23. Just Like Jesus
& Our Father
✤ Jesus gave up heaven to save
us from hell
✤ Jesus humbled himself & died
out of love for us

24. Jesus Revealed
Our Father
✤ Jesus did & said only what His
Father’s did and told Him to
say. (John 5:19)
✤ “He who has seen Me has
seen the Father…”( John 14:9)
✤ Jesus is the model for all fathers