9:15am “Modern Service” SLBC (LKLD, FL)
The Importance of Fatherhood
Colossians 3:20-21
• ἐρεθίζω = exasperate, stir up, provoke, embitter, irritate
The life of Joseph, the Son of God’s father.
1. Fathers must take RESPONSIBILITY
Matthew 1:16
2. Fathers must be RIGHTEOUS
Matthew 1:18-20, 24
“Righteous” = do the right thing
Matthew 2:13-14
Bradford Wilcox, Sociologist University of Virginia
“Success Sequence” specific order:
a. Graduate High School
b. Get a Full-Time Job
c. Get married before children
Wilcox: “Conservative Protestant married men with children are consistently the most active and expressive fathers and the most emotionally engaged husbands.”
Nancy Pearcey, “The Toxic War on Masculinity”
Compared to the average American family man, evangelical men are:
• More loving to their wives
• More engaged with their children–3.5 more hours/wk than secular men
• Lowest rate of divorce–35 % lower than secular men
• Have the lowest rates of domestic violence of any group in the US.
Barack Obama (June 15, 2008)
“…children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of school and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.”
Proverbs 19:18 Discipline your son while there is hope; don’t set your heart on being the cause of his death.
Colossians 3:23-25 “…You serve the Lord Christ.”
3. A Father’s Faith must be REAL
Luke 2:25-27; 2:39-50
Joseph’s family worshiped the Lord consistently, “every year”
He was not a perfect parent, he didn’t understand everything, but he was a righteous man… you can be too.
