Father Abraham

Well, probably most of you, when you were a child, at some place along the line, sang, Father Abraham had many sons, and I'm one of them. And thus, in that way, in other ways, Abraham's name has been associated with the concept of fatherhood down through many years, and that's appropriate. Many, I'm sure, are aware of this concept of Abraham and his many descendants, his many children.

What an amazing thing, an ironic truth. He who could not have children ended up having a host so great, a descendant's a host so great that no one can number them. And I think most of the time, that's what people think about when they think about the concept of Abraham and fatherhood that he just had by the amazing miracle and grace of God. He had lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of descendants after going for so many years without being able to have a child with his wife, Sarah. But I think a few really emphasize or understand the primary emphasis of this concept of Abraham and fatherhood, which I hope to show you from our text today is not so much centered on the number of children he had, though that certainly is part of it, but it has to do with the manner of his fathering, the manner that he exercised his role as a father. The example he set in that, and indeed, as we look through the Bible, we really don't find as many examples of fatherhood, good, good examples of fatherhood as we might suppose. But Abraham provides one of those for us.

And there are probably more testimonies to his successful fathering that perhaps we have examined or understood. Have you ever pondered as to how it was that when Abraham took Isaac, his son out on up on Mount Moriah to sacrifice him at God's command, an incredibly difficult task. And Abraham and Isaac were walking along and Isaac said, father, here's the wood and here's the fire. They had a some kind of a container with the coals of fire in it. But where is the sacrifice?

Where's the animal? And Abraham just simply said the Lord will provide himself a sacrifice. But eventually they came to the altar, constructed for that purpose. And Abraham tied up his own son Isaac and laid him out on the altar to sacrifice him at the command of God. Abraham, an old man now, past 100 years old, Isaac, a young strong man. How did Abraham, the old man, manage to overcome the strength of the young man to tie him up and put him on that altar? And I don't think Abraham had that kind of strength. I think that's a testimony to the kind of relationship that Abraham had with Isaac, that Isaac submitted to that willingly, trusting his father to do what was right.

Because he saw in his father a man who did right and therefore he trusted him. And we have that testimony to Abraham's fatherhood. So there are a number of reasons to hold Abraham up as an example of a godly father. And I think we can see most of them in our text before us in Genesis 18, 19, where God said concerning Abraham, for I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him and that they may keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him.

Now that text will be expounded in the second of my third points today. My sermon is constructed a little bit different from my usual way, but we will look at these three things in regard to fathers. Number one, the evidence of need. Number two, an example for guidance, namely Abraham.

And number three, applications for action. And I start with evidence for need, that is evidence for godly fatherhood in our day, in our society, in our country. I don't think anybody would argue my point that we need a whole new rash of godly fathers that if we don't have them, our nation will likely not survive.

I say that to you by way of personal observance and I'm sure that most of you have observed everything that I'm going to mention and probably more as well. We look around us in our land today and we see host and host and host of what we might call fatherless children. Of course, biologically they have a father somewhere, but he's absent, nowhere to be found. These children don't know their father. They don't know where their father is in many cases.

They have a mother who's struggling to raise them without a father and we see them all around us as a testimony to the evidence of a need for restored emphasis upon fatherhood. And of course, with that we see many ill behaving children. Many in this congregation today are not old enough to remember a time in America when it was unusual to see a misbehaving child in public. Some of us are old enough. I'm old enough to remember that.

It was a scandal. It was surprising to see a child act out in the grocery store or to act out in the restaurant. You just didn't see that hardly ever. But now that's almost the rule rather to see a well behaved child is the exception. In fact, there have been times when I have observed well behaved children in public places that I have felt it would be appropriate to go commend the parents for having, or the mother, whoever's with them, for having well behaved children because it is a rare matter in our day today and that too is evidence of what I'm talking about and the need for fatherhood. So many angry and resentful young people who don't even know what it is they're mad about, they have things in mind but in most cases it really is not the main problem and often in many cases it's not even a serious problem but they're angry, they're mad, they're just seething in it and may not understand why but I think in many cases, maybe most cases, that can be traced back to absentee fathers or poorly behaving fathers in the home. We see disrespectful children, disrespectful to their parents, disrespectful to their teachers, disrespectful to the police, disrespectful to authorities of all kind. We find teachers that don't want to stay in the classroom, they're fleeing the classrooms because it is so difficult to control the children. In fact, in some classes it's actually dangerous to be a teacher today so great is the unruliness and the violence. And in this and many other things I could mention, we see a society in turmoil, I think it would not be wrong to say a society in crisis and though there are many reasons for that crisis, probably one reason, perhaps the most important one, is the problem of a lack of godly fatherhood as the rule in American society. Something has changed over the last several decades. And that is borne out by statistics. I'm going to give you some sobering statistics and I'll tell you where they came from. They came from this article in World Magazine that I'm now holding in my hands.

It is the May, oh May something edition, it's recent, it just came out. It is the May 18th edition, 2024, and it is entitled Countercultural Courage, the one man's quest to destroy false narratives and restore the black community to foundational truths. And he's focusing on the black community because he's a black man and he was raised with an absentee father and he saw the problem and he has established a ministry, an organization to address that and it's picking up steam.

He's in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. But in the course of the article that appears in World Magazine there were a number of statistics that I'm going to pass on to you. And some of these have to do with black America and I don't mean that to be offensive to anyone, but these are the statistics. Truth is truth and it doesn't have any racial connotations but it just shows you where the problems are and what needs to be done to solve them.

But we begin with this one. It is the case that the median income for black men grew 600% from 1939 to 1960. Tremendous strides were made during that time. And black Americans before the poverty line during that same period decreased from 87% to 47%. That's the official government poverty line.

It was cut by more than half during those decades from 1939 to 1960. Today, 25% of US children live in single parent households. That's of every race. 25% of American children live in single parent households. And this is the statistic following that one that floored me.

I had no idea. Our percentage of children living in single parent households is higher than any country in the world. The world average is 7%.

The United States average is 25%. Get your mind around that. Now I would be tempted at this point to go off into explaining what I think are the reasons for that particular statistic, that particular reality, but I'm not going to. But just let that sink in. Some things, not only is something very wrong in America, but something has happened in America that is largely different from what's happened in all other countries in the world.

But we move on. In the United States, 24 million children are without biological fathers in the home. The majority are black, but there are many other minorities. And this is also increasing year by year among the white population. And 75% of fatherless children are in substance abuse centers. 71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes. 90% of runaway children come from fatherless homes. 75% of rapists came out of a fatherless home. And 70% of those who are in juvenile detention centers have come from fatherless homes.

I hope I have convinced you that my case is true, that fatherless homes in America is not a minor problem. It's not even a middle level problem. It is a huge, huge, huge problem. Maybe, maybe the biggest problem that we have in America today.

Something's wrong. But the question as to what is wrong exactly and why do we have these things and how are we going to fix it brings us to point number two, an example for guidance in the life of Abraham in our text in Genesis chapter 18, verse 19. I need to read it again. God said of Abraham, for I know him in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him.

Here we see a relationship, a result, and a reward. The text begins by talking about a relationship that Abraham had with God and indeed, even more importantly, that God had with Abraham. It tells us God speaking, for I have known him. There would have been a time when I would have read that to mean something like, I know him pretty well.

I know what he's like and I think I can trust him to do what I want to see done here in regard to his children and so forth. But as you know, the word no in the Bible has a more serious meaning than that. The word no means something like a special relationship accompanied by affection.

We see that throughout the Bible when, for example, the Bible tells us that Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived and bore a child. There's a special relationship, a close relationship, the closest physical relationship that is included in that word no. A special relationship accompanied by affection and that applies to this statement about Abraham. One translator or one commentator translated it, for I acknowledge him to be my intimate friend.

When it says, for I have known him, it means I know him to be my intimate friend and what we further understand as we consider that text carefully, I know him to be my intimate friend because I have taken the initiative to make him my intimate friend. God took the initiative here to know Abraham in this special relationship of affection and productivity. For I have known him in order that. I have known him, said God about Abraham, I have known him in order that I have known him for a special purpose. I have a purpose in mind for establishing this relationship with Abraham. And so we see that God established a special relationship with Abraham. Abraham knew God because God made himself known to Abraham and that's not hard to figure out. Just trace it back to where Abraham was before God made himself known to him, in the ear of the Chaldees, in a community that was idolatrous, in a family that was idolatrous, with a father who was idolatrous. The indication is that Abraham was idolatrous.

Now, where is a man like this going to become a man like the one we read about in the Bible? Well, God set his affection upon him. God took the initiative to know him in a special way. God determined that he was going to do something within him and he said, I will know him for the purpose of accomplishing certain things. And so it was a relationship established by God to accomplish something. And we're told here what that is. It is to enable Abraham to guide his children properly.

I can stop right here before we get to the practical applications of all of this, but to say, dear fathers, dear grandfathers, dear everyone who understands the need that I was talking about for the right kind of fathers in America, please understand that we've got to call out to God to do something for us and within us to be able to do what needs to be done. It's not normal in fallen human society. It's not normal within fallen human nature.

What we're seeing in America today is actually the norm among fallen sons and daughters of Adam, unless God in his grace does something to change it. And God, in the case of Abraham, did something to change it. There are three times in the Bible that God is called, or Abraham rather, is called the friend of God. I don't know anybody else that's called that, but Abraham is called the friend of God. This intimate relationship of affection that God established with Abraham indeed drew Abraham into a closer relationship with God than nearly anyone else in all the Bible and enabled him to have the kind of relationship where he could talk to God, where he could argue with God. Oh Lord, don't destroy the city for 50. How about if they're 40?

How about if they're 30? We look at that and we almost say, how did they have the courage to do that, to talk God down like that? Abraham was a friend of God because God had done something in his life and in their relationship that was quite unusual. But please know that fellowship with God depends upon a knowledge of his will. I have known him in order that I may accomplish things in him, but for Abraham to be able to accomplish those things, he had to know God as God truly is. He had to have a knowledge of the one true God through that which God had revealed to him. So that's the relationship.

But secondly, in the text we see a result that comes out of this relationship. I have known him, we are told, in order that, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice. In order that, and I'm going to break this down into the three phrases, in order that number one, he, that is Abraham, may command his children and his household after him. How many children did Abraham have when this was spoken? One, Ishmael, and that came through circumstances that were not the most honoring to God, as you know. But God said, I know him, that he will command his children, plural, after him.

God knew what was his design for Abraham's life, and so eventually there came Isaac, and I've already mentioned something from the life of Isaac that indicates a powerful testimony that Abraham had to Isaac to cause him to trust his father so completely in that difficult situation. So God said, I know that Abraham will command his children, Ishmael and Isaac, and then eventually, of course, the six sons of Keturah, after Sarah died, Abraham remarried and had six more sons. We read about that in Abraham, in Genesis 25 verse 1, and Abraham again took a wife and her name was Keturah, and she bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishback, and Shuah.

Now your assignment is to memorize those names and report them back to me by memory. We really don't know much about those six boys, but we can be assured by our text that they too were taught the word of God by Abraham. God said, I know him in order that he will command his children after him. But not just his children, it says his children in his household, that is everybody in his household. So God was expecting Abraham to command, that is to instruct his wife Sarah and indeed his other wife Hagar, who Sarah gave to him when she wasn't able to have children, as well as his later wife Keturah.

He was not only a good father, but he was a godly husband who instructed his wives in the way of the Lord. But not only his wives, his children and his wives, but all of his household, and that was a vast household. How many soldiers, how many servants that were able to take up arms did Abraham have at his disposal when he decided to go after the four kings, or was it five, who conquered Sodom and bring his nephew Lot back? How many did he have at that time?

It was three hundred and, what, sixteen, eighteen, something like that, I've forgotten exactly. If he had that many men who were able to take up arms, he must have had others that were either too young or too old to do that, as well as wives and children. Abraham's household probably numbered, well undoubtedly numbered in six, seven hundred, maybe a thousand people that kept all of his vast herbs and so forth and God said he's going to teach all of them the ways of God too. This is not just what he does in his tent with his family, this is what he does with all of those that I have placed under his authority, all of those that I've given him a relationship with where he's able to do this. I can count on him to teach them the ways of the Lord. I am giving him the special relationship in order that he will teach all of these people God's ways. He will command them that they keep the way of the Lord. He's going to teach them God's word, God's ways, God's wisdom, God's knowledge, God's power, God's grace, God's judgment. When the Lord, who was one of these three men who came to see Abraham, turned away to go to Sodom, he changed his mind and he came back and he said, shall I hide from Abraham what I'm going to do seeing that I am making of him a great nation and through him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed and I know him that he will command his children and household after him and so forth.

That's the context in which this is found. And so what does God do at that point? He tells Abraham about his plans to destroy Sodom and that's when Abraham pleads with God to reduce the number but there still were not enough to spare Sodom. But what was God doing? He was telling Abraham not only about his grace and mercy but also about his justice and judgment. God had put up with Sodom for a long time. God had been patient, God had been long suffering but their sin had only gotten worse and worse and worse and worse and finally said, God said, I cannot tolerate it any longer. I'm going to destroy Sodom because of their sodomy.

Don't let anyone try to tell you that there was some other reason why God destroyed Sodom. And God told Abraham not only about his mercy and love and grace and power but about his judgment and he expected Abraham to teach that to his household as well. They need to know that God is a God of justice, God is a God of judgment, therefore you better seek him in mercy. And God said, I can count on Abraham to command his children and household after him that they may keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice. One translation has it by doing righteousness and justice. So it's hard to see exactly what the text is saying at this point but it seems to indicate number one that Abraham is not only a teacher but he's an example. He's going to teach them the ways of God's righteousness and judgment by himself doing God's righteousness and justice in the way he lives and the way he treats other people. And he's going to teach them not only verbally that this is what they ought to do but he's going to watch over them to make sure they do it.

That they are going to do righteousness and judgment or justice rather as Abraham supervises their training. So we have relationship number one. We have the result of the relationship number two. And then we have the reward that comes from all of this and we're told that all of this is in order that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken. There's a promised reward.

There's a required path and there's a mysterious relationship. The promised reward is to bring to Abraham what he has spoken and it's repeated in the verse just prior to this one. Verse 18, Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, the father of Israel, father Abraham, the father of the nation of Israel and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. What a promise that God has made to Abraham. It is so vast.

It is so far reaching. That's what God has spoken. From Abraham will come a great nation, Israel, that God has protected it down to today in spite of many efforts to exterminate it. And from Abraham God is going to bless all the nations of the earth and that's why we have a host of largely Gentile people gathered here today to worship the God of Abraham because God has blessed the nations of the earth through Abraham and through the Messiah that he brought in the line of Abraham.

And so there is a promised reward but there's a required path. In order that, in order that I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice and then my translation says that but some translations repeat in order that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. The relationship which God is going to establish with Abraham is going to change Abraham's heart, change his mind, change his life, change his ability, change his desires so that he will command his children and household after him in order that the Lord may keep his promises to him.

Now this is mysterious, isn't it? There's a promised reward but there's a required path. There's a necessary link between Abraham's obedience and God's fulfillment of the promise. Abraham's obedience and faithfulness is the path that is required for God to keep his promise to Abraham. To put it in the terms of our text today, his exemplary exercise of fatherhood is what must be done in order for God to bless him with a great nation that flows from him and to bless all the nations of the earth.

That's a mysterious relationship. God's sovereign promises somehow depended upon Abraham's dutiful obedience. God uses human obedience to fulfill his purposes by God's enabling power and by man's obedient response. This relationship between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man will never be fully sorted out this side of eternity.

But both are taught and both are true. And the best I can figure out what God is saying here in effect is I am going to establish a relationship with Abraham so that my overcoming power, he's not going to feel the sense that he's been overcome, I'm going to work within him silently and secretly, but my overcoming power is going to assure the accomplishment of Abraham's obedience. He will obey and he must obey and his obedience is necessary for the promise to be fulfilled, but it's impossible for the promise not to be fulfilled. It's been made, it will be fulfilled and it's going to be fulfilled because I'm going to so work in the life of Abraham to make sure that it is fulfilled.

And once again I pause. We're talking about fatherhood, not only in Abraham, but in all others. And don't you see how dependent all of us fathers are upon the grace and the working of God within our lives in order to accomplish what he's told us to do?

It's impossible apart from that. But we have every reason to believe that God will accomplish that within us, but we need to seek him for it. So that brings me number three, to applications for action. And now we just get into a whole bunch of ideas and suggestions that grow out of this text.

I start by considering for a moment a father's position in the home. These thoughts are drawn largely from a sermon by William Gurnall, one of the Puritans, born in 1616, died in 1679. He would have been alive when the Second London Baptist Confession was actually composed.

It wasn't published until 1689 because those were dangerous days, but it was complete I think in 1672. Have I got the date right on that, Matt? Good. Matt's our expert on the Second London Baptist Confession. And if you're looking for a Sunday School class to attend today, you may want to attend that class.

But back to William Gurnall. He's the one who said that every father must be a prophet, priest, and king in his own home. Now the Book of the Month by Sam Waldron is father as priest in your home. Well, Gurnall said, prophet, priest, and king.

He laid them all out. A father must be a prophet to speak God's word. A father must be a priest to lead his family to God. And a priest must have sacrifices to offer, and new covenant sacrifices are prayer and praise. And so a father should have a life filled with prayer and praise to be a priest to lead his family to God. And a father must be a king to rule his household.

Duck when you say that one in this day and time. But folks, at whatever point we depart from the Word of God, we will pay unwelcome consequences. We can't say, well, we'll let fathers be prophets and priests, but they aren't going to be kings.

No, sir. Not in my house, not my husband. You ought to long for that and desire for that to be accomplished in a godly way. That's God's plan. That's God's purpose. And actually it's been my experience, my observation, that husbands struggle with how to fulfill that. In many cases, husbands would like not to have that responsibility.

And sometimes we'll sinfully defer that. You do that. You take care of that wife. You take care of the ruling part. You take care of disciplining the children. You take care of setting the rules in the home. I'll just make the money and support the family.

No, no, no. Whether we can put a thus saith the Lord on Guernol's three things or not, I'm not sure that we can, but I think he's definitely got a biblical idea, biblical concept here when he says every husband should be a prophet, priest, and king in his own household. But I move on from a father's position to a father's responsibility, and I draw these thoughts largely from a sermon by A. W. Pink, a 20th century writer. And he says a father's responsibility is to do the four following things. Number one, be a good example. Number two, be a faithful instructor. Number three, be a wise disciplinarian. And number four, be a fervent intercessor.

So there's a lot of overlapping here, but let's take these one by one. A father's first responsibility is to be a good example. You can't really teach others what you yourself are not doing, not obeying, not endeavoring to obey. Not if you want to be effective.

Not if you want to not drive your children to wrath. Fathers do not drive your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. You need to be a good example. You need to be a faithful instructor. And Pink also says accurately to be a good teacher, he must be a good pupil. You can't be a good teacher of God's word unless you are a good student of God's word. Number three, a father's responsibility is to be a wise disciplinarian. He must be a disciplinarian to be obedient to God, but he needs to be a wise one, a gracious one, not a harsh one, not an inconsistent one, not a belligerent one. And number four, a fervent intercessor, bathing all of it in prayer because in spite of our best efforts, the only way it's going to succeed is by God blessing it, God empowering it, God working in hearts, God bringing our children to a saving knowledge of Christ.

There must be fervent intercession. That's a father's responsibility. And Pink mentions three common mistakes that fathers make in our day. Number one, to provide materially but neglect to instruct.

I've already covered that one. I'll take care of earning the living and wifey, you take care of everything else in the home. No, that's a mistake to provide materially, but to neglect to instruct. Number two, to do for them rather than to do with them. In other words, do what I say, but don't show them how, don't take time with them.

Teach them by word and also by example and by doing things, doing these things with them. And a third mistake is to endeavor to discipline without self-discipline. You teach your kids not to display a nasty temper, but do you lose your anger, your temper?

Get that under control, discipline yourself in that area. You teach your children that they need to do things at the right time, get up on time and be on schedule. Does that characterize you? Are you an on-time person? You say, I have to be, I'd lose my job.

Are you an on-time person so that you get up and get to church on Sunday at the proper time or do you fail to discipline yourself in these areas? You say, wow, you're stepping on toes now. Don't you want to go back to the text and talk about Abraham? But let's not make those common mistakes. So I've got eight things. Now these don't come from Abraham, they don't come from gurnall, they don't come from pink. They're just going to be my own personal recommendations and observations drawing from all of these things.

Eight things. Number one, the kind of fathers we need in America today are number one, those who acknowledge God's role as supreme. In other words, acknowledge that God is the one who created this. God is the one who created human society. God is the one who's given us the rules for how it ought to operate. Therefore we acknowledge that God's way is right. God's way is best.

And we acknowledge that we don't fight against it. Number two, he must be one who cultivates a vital relationship with God, not only acknowledging the truth about God and the Bible as some fathers do, but fail to seek a relationship with God through Jesus Christ themselves. But a godly father must cultivate a vital relationship with Jesus Christ. He must seek the new birth, knowing that only God can grant that. He must seek to live a godly life again, knowing that he'll need divine help for that to occur. He must seek to grow in grace and knowledge.

He's got to have that to be a good father. Number three, a godly father must seek and cultivate a like-minded partner, that is a wife, to seek the right kind of wife before he is married and to cultivate godliness within his wife after he is married. Did you know the Bible gives that responsibility to husbands?

They are to nourish their wives, to teach them. The Bible has something to say about that in several places. Number four, he must become established in a word-centered church.

That's so vitally, vitally important. He needs instruction from the Bible. Some of that, a great deal of that is going to come from a word-centered church. He needs a fellowship of like-minded believers. Again, that will come to him best from a word-centered church. He needs reinforcement for the kind of home he's trying to establish on God's word. He needs others who are endeavoring to do the same thing, and you'll find that in a word-centered church. He needs a place to serve the Lord effectively, and the best place to do that is in a word-centered church. Number five, he must maintain family worship.

That's a tough one for some dads, but we need to overcome the difficulty and establish family worship in the home. Anyone can do it if you will do it. I know all kinds of fears and objections will arise. Just set those aside, trust the Lord, and plow ahead. You don't have to be eloquent. You don't have to be a theologian, but you need to be godly and humble, and you need to be willing to read a portion of God's word and pray, instruct your family in the word of God on a regular basis, family worship in the home.

That's so important. Number six, a godly father must teach respect for proper authority. Must teach respect for proper authority starting in the home. If your children never learn to be submissive and obedient to their parents, why do you think they're going to be submissive and obedient to teachers, to policemen, to authorities in society? Or are they going to be unruly and undisciplined and disobedient to all authorities? You need to teach your children respect to proper authority because ultimately they have to submit to the ultimate authority, which is God. And if they haven't learned to submit to lesser authorities, then how are they going to learn to submit to the authority of almighty God?

Now they may. God has ways of doing that, but it's your responsibility to teach them that in the home. You see, teach having rules in the home, reasonable rules, and teaching them and enforcing them is an important lesson for godliness for their lives later on in their relationship with the Lord. That's the foundation upon which their relationship with the Lord is going to be built. So number six, teach respect for proper authority. I know there are a lot of authorities that are not very respectable themselves.

That's a problem. You're going to have to sort all that out and teach them what the Bible says about when it is appropriate and God honoring to reject human authority that commands you to do things that are contrary to the word of God. But don't make that the main emphasis. The main emphasis is learning to respect authority as ordained by God. God ordained authority in the home. God ordained authority in society. God ordained authority in the church. God ordained authority as it's laid out in God's word.

Number seven, I think this is vitally important. You need to strive for faithfulness, not perfection, because nobody has achieved perfection and nobody will. And if you somehow have in your mind that you need to be perfect in order to be a good parent, you'll never make it. And if you have somehow in your mind that you need to be perfect in order to have God's blessing upon your efforts, you're going to be frustrated because you're not perfect and never will be. And the truth of the matter is that God honors faithfulness. He doesn't require perfection. Was Abraham a perfect man?

Oh no, we can remember a few little, maybe not such little wayward times in the life of Abraham. But the main tone of his life was faithful to God. And when he messed up, he dealt with that with God and I'm sure dealt with it with his family and moved on. And look how God honored him for his faithfulness, not for his perfection. And God will do that in your lives too. I'm amazed at how often God blesses the efforts we have in training our children when we are so imperfect, when our ways of doing things are not as good as they ought to be at times. But if with a humble heart desiring to please the Lord, we are endeavoring to carry out the word of God, it's amazing how God does honor that. And one final point, a godly father will learn to exercise godly citizenship. This takes me back to the statistics I told you about in the first part of the message. And one of the things and maybe the main thing that's different in the United States of America and other countries so that we have 25% of children with fatherless households, whereas the world average is 7%. I think we would say it's very likely that that's been done by well-meaning but convoluted government policies that have encouraged the breakup of marriage in the homes instead of the strengthening of marriage in the homes.

I'm sure it's well-meaning but it wasn't good, it wasn't right because it wasn't following God's word. You know, in America today we tend to think that the answer to every problem is throw some more money at it. We've got lots of money. More money, more money. Is the problem poverty? Money will take care of it. But we've got as much poverty as ever before according to the statistics.

Is education, poor education the problem? More money will take care of it. More money, more money. Give our schools more money and the level of education keeps going down, down, down, down, down. More money, less good results and we could go on and on.

How many other examples of that do we need? Money's part of what God gives us to carry out our responsibility to him but it's not the most important part. You know, if you say to the average American today, don't forget the American dream, the importance of the American dream. What comes to people's mind is the American dream.

Oh, in America you can make money and live a comfortable life. That's not the American dream as it started out. The American dream at the beginning was a place where we could have freedom of religion fleeing from countries that didn't allow that and that expanded to other freedoms. The American dream was to have a society where there was more freedom than in most societies and where people could govern themselves and didn't need so much heavy-handed government but that only works, that only works where people are oriented to God and to his word. When they get away from that, people can't govern themselves. And when people think the American dream is just the freedom to make money and have missed some of the more important freedoms, then it's no wonder that society is convoluted and people think the answer to everything is more money.

And so that brings me back to my last recommendation here. Exercise godly citizenship. Vote for policies that reflect godly wisdom when you see things that are contrary to godly wisdom, however well-meaning they may be, but they are wrong and you know that because you know the word of God. So exercise your Christian citizenship to bring about the changes that you're allowed to do.

And if we had about 50 million fathers doing that in America today, our nation would look entirely different in a matter of just a few years. Five, I have known Abraham in order that he may command his children and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. God's made many promises to us in his word. Let's be obedient and faithful and prayerful that God may bring the fulfillment of those promises to us as well. Shall we pray? Father, help us to know your ways, to follow your paths as we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.