CHOOSY FATHERS, CHOOSE JESUS
Joshua 24:14-18 and Galatians 3:23-29

June 20, 2004

The idea for creating a day for children to honor their fathers began in Spokane, Washington. A woman by the name of Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea for Father’s Day while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909. Having been raised by her father after her mother died, Sonora wanted her father to know how special he was to her.

It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a courageous, selfless, and loving man. Her father was born in June, so naturally she chose to hold the first Father’s Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th day of June 1910. In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day.

One little boy defined Father’s Day best -- he said that Father’s Day was just like Mother’s Day, except you don’t spend as much money on the gift! Some of you men would say, what gift?
 

I’m sure that almost all of you have seen or at least heard of the peanut butter commercial where its caption says, “Choosy Mothers Chose Jiff”. I would like to talk to you this morning about “Choosy Fathers” Why? Because Choosy Fathers Chose Jesus (repeat).

You see, I believe that for a man, being a Christian Father is one of the highest callings he can ever achieve in his life, one worthy of praise on Father’s Day. Anybody can be a father. It takes courage, selflessness, and love, like Sonora Dodd’s father, to be a godly dad.
 

Think about this for just a minute: God uses "Father/child" examples throughout the Bible as models to explain our relationship with Him. When we pray to Him, we pray as Jesus taught us, "Our Father, who art in heaven..." Why Father? Perhaps it is because of the importance of that father-son relationship.

If we were to search the scriptures for an example of a Godly Father, one such father is without a doubt, Joshua.
We see here in Chapter 24 --Joshua at the ripe old age of 110 -- calling a meeting of the leaders of Israel for a farewell address.

Joshua is charging the children of Israel to obey the Lord who had fought for them and given them an inheritance. He tells them:
”Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose lands you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

There are lots of things that we could say about Joshua, but for the sake of time I want to mention just two -- two qualities that he possessed that all fathers would do well to emulate.

#1 -- He chose the hard road of doing what was best for his family.
Here he have a Choosy Father who decided that in spite of what everybody else was doing – worshiping idols and going along with the crowd- that he was going to fear, serve and choose the Lord.  And it’s always a choice to live for God, because it doesn’t come naturally.

He set a living example, rather than the old “do as I say and not as I do” model.

I read somewhere that “A boy loves his mother, but he will follow his father.” So the question to you men is -- where are you leading your children?

#2 – Secondly, Joshua had a spiritual Plan for the Family.
The Christian Father must also have a plan for the spiritual life of his loved ones. Joshua said “...we will serve the Lord.”
 

Dads, what is your plan for the souls in your house?
Church? Sunday School? Share your faith? Telling them about Jesus?
Dads, the most important place you take your children isn’t on vacation, state finals, tee ball, dance...the most important place you take your children will be to heaven.
What’s your plan?

When Greg Swindell pitched for the Cleveland Indians, he wore a modern day "phylactery." Greg was the proud father of Sydney, born January 21, 1991. That’s an important date to Swindell. On the back of his baseball cap he had her name inscribed in tiny little white letters and her birth date was written out on the underside of his cap’s bill. "When things are going badly or when I’m getting shelled, I can take it off and look at it and know what I have to look forward to when I get home." You may not wear a baseball cap to work, but such vital statistics can be etched onto a briefcase or placed on the dash of your car with such reminders as: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Christian fathers ... Have you blessed your children? Do they know by your actions that they are special in your eyes? Have you told them you are proud of them? Do you tell them you love them?

Other people will be their friends, their mentors, and their coaches. But no one else will ever be their father. Only you can fulfill that role.

They need the physical, spiritual and emotional provisions that God has instructed you to impart to them.
But if you are a Christian father, it is not just your duty ... it should be your joy!

I remember a little fellow, frightened by lightning and thunder, who called out one dark night, "Daddy, come. I’m scared." "Son," the father said, "God loves you and he’ll take care of you." "I know God loves me," the boy replied. "But right now I want somebody who has skin on." That is what God calls you to be for your children, no matter what their age- God’s love with skin on.
 

As we consider choices, may we see that the choices we make will determine our character, our influence, our commitment and relationship to Christ, and ultimately our destiny. It was the choice to care for his family no matter what, that stirred Sonora Dodd to institute a day to honor her father.

God gives us a choice. He shows us the right choices to make, and yet so often we simply choose to exercise our free will to make choices that follow our own desires, often even choosing and saying "no" to a relationship with God.

There is a story about a man named Fred who inherited $10 million, but the will required that he had to accept it either in Chile or Brazil. He chose Brazil. Unhappily it turned out that in Chile he would have received his inheritance in land on which gold and silver had just been discovered. Once in Brazil he had to choose between receiving his inheritance in coffee or nuts. He chose the nuts. Too bad! The bottom fell out of the nut market, and coffee went up. Poor Fred lost everything he had to his name. He went out and sold his solid gold watch for the money he needed to fly home. It seems that he had enough for a ticket to either New York or Boston. He chose Boston. When the plane for New York taxied up he noticed it was a brand-new super 747 jet with red carpets and chic people and wine-popping hostesses.

The plane for Boston then arrived. It was a 1928 Ford tri-motor and it took a full day just to get off the ground. It was filled with crying children and tethered goats. Over the Andes, one of the engines fell off. Our man Fred made his way up to the captain and said, "I’m a jinx on this plane. Let me out if you want to save your lives. Give me a parachute." The pilot agreed, but added, "On this plane, anybody who bails out must wear two chutes." So Fred jumped out of the plane, and as he fell through the air he tried to make up his mind which ripcord to pull. Finally he chose the one on the left. It was rusty and the wire pulled loose. So he then pulled the other handle. This chute opened, but its shroud lines snapped. In desperation, the poor fellow cried out, "St. Francis save me!" A great hand from heaven reached down and seized the poor fellow by the wrist and let him dangle in midair. Then a gentle voice asked, "St. Francis Xavier or St. Francis of Assisi?" While we laugh at a humorous tale like this, everyday we are confronted with many choices. We often do not realize how vitally important these choice are and how they impact our lives.

Joshua called on the people to "Honor the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly", to make the choice to put away idols, to stop serving the gods of this world and to make the choice to serve the Lord. And Joshua tells them his choice "As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord."
The people’s emotions were stirred, and they immediately tell Joshua "Hey, we won’t forsake the Lord." But Joshua knows the story of the people of God, and how quickly we choose to turn away. What I believe Joshua is really trying to do here, is to challenge them and encourage them—and us, that if we chose the Lord, we will be blessed and we will be a blessing to our families.

Joshua’s farewell address is an excellent example of a Father/Child relationship. You see, it is Christian Fathers like Joshua, who not only give us life, but also teach us how to live.

So for you dads out there, remember: choosy fathers choose Jesus as their model, and live their lives out in a godly way like Joshua.
“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”