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CHRIST

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Deuteronomy 6:4-9 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! (5) You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. (6)

"And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. (7) You shall

teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house,

when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. (8) You shall

bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. (9)

You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

FATHERS

HOW IMPORTANT ARE FATHERS IN THE HOME.

A. Some fathering advocates would say that almost every social ill faced by America’s children is related to fatherlessness.

B. As supported by the data below, children from fatherless homes are more likely to be poor, become involved in drug and alcohol abuse, drop out of school, and suffer from health and emotional problems. Boys are more likely to become involved in crime, and girls are more likely to become pregnant as teens.

1. Poverty•Children in father-absent homes are almost four times more likely to be poor. In 2011, 12 percent of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, compared to 44 percent of children in mother-only families.

•Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Children’s Living Arrangements and Characteristics: March 2011, Table C8. Washington D.C.: 2011.

2. Drug and Alcohol Abuse

•The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states, “Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse.”

•Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Center for Health Statistics. Survey on Child Health. Washington, DC, 1993.

3. Physical and Emotional Health•A study of 1,977 children age 3 and older living with a residential father or father figure found that children living with married biological parents had significantly fewer externalizing and internalizing behavioral problems than children living with at least one non-biological parent.

•Source: Hofferth, S. L. (2006). Residential father family type and child well-being: investment versus selection. Demography, 43, 53-78.

4. Educational Achievement•71% of high school dropouts are fatherless; fatherless children have more trouble academically, scoring poorly on tests of reading, mathematics, and thinking skills; children from father-absent homes are more likely to be truant from school, more likely to be excluded from school, more likely to leave school at age 16, and less likely to attain academic and professional qualifications in adulthood.

•Source: Edward Kruk, Ph.D., “The Vital Importance of Paternal Presence in Children’s Lives.” May 23, 2012.

5. Crime•Adolescents living in intact families are less likely to engage in delinquency than their peers living in non-intact families. Compared to peers in intact families, adolescents in single-parent families and stepfamilies were more likely to engage in delinquency. This relationship appeared to be operating through differences in family processes—parental involvement, supervision, monitoring, and parentchild closeness—between intact and non-intact families.

•Source: Stephen Demuth and Susan L. Brown, “Family Structure, Family Processes, and Adolescent Delinquency: The Significance of Parental Absence Versus Parental Gender,” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 41, No. 1 (February 2004): 58-81.

6. Sexual Activity and Teen Pregnancy

•Being raised by a single mother raises the risk of teen pregnancy, marrying with less than a high school degree, and forming a marriage where both partners have less than a high school degree.

•Source: Teachman, Jay D. “The Childhood Living Arrangements of Children and the Characteristics of Their Marriages.” Journal of Family Issues 25 (January 2004): 86-111.

WHAT MAKES FATHERS

IMPORTANT?

FARMER •Ephesians 6:4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

•It is the father who is charged with implanting God’s instructions into the hearts of his children. Like a good farmer he provides a nurturing environment for God’s word to grow.

ARCHER •Psalm 127:3-5 Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. (4) Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth. (5) Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; They shall not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.

•The psalmist describes the blessings and responsibility of fatherhood

TEACHER•Proverbs 4:1-2 Hear, my children, the instruction of a father, And give attention to know understanding; (2) For I give you good doctrine: Do not forsake my law.

•It is the father’s who responsible to see that the children receive the right direction for life.

HUSBAND•Ephesians 5:23, 25 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. … (25) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,

•As Christ is the spiritual protection for the church, the father is the “house-band” that protects the marriage and the home.

EXAMPLE•Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

•A father must exemplify God’s design for the home before his children so that they will know how to start and properly maintain their on homes.

RESOURCE•Luke 15:17 But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

•When the Lord gives the parable of the prodigal son He reveals that the son remembered the blessing always available in his father’s house.

TONIGHT’S SERMONTHE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH