Father’s Day Sermon Ideas

It’s almost mother’s day in the United States, which means Father’s Day is right around the corner, and social media is about to be inundated with pictures and posts saying, “Happy Father’s Day!”

I thought it would be a great idea to find out what the Word of God says about the kind of father we should be. The best way to learn about fatherhood is to look to the perfect father we have in heaven.
As pastors begin to prepare their fathers day sermon, they will no doubt speak of our heavenly father as an example to be a good father and a godly father here on earth.

When I was a little boy, I looked to my earthly father as an example of who I should strive to become. He definitely taught me a lot about how to tell dad jokes and was a great spiritual example. I love him and hope he has a happy fathers day.

As I have grown in my Christian life and into a greater understanding of the love of God, I know that no human father can be the best father they can be without the help of the Holy Spirit. When I had my own children, I gained a different perspective of what the Bible means when it teaches us about the kingdom of God and the idea of God being a loving father.

What I want to do with this article is give some father’s day sermon outline ideas as well as a look into what it takes to be a christian father. I hope they will help us learn more about the father’s plan and help men grow into great spiritual fathers and the godly man that God wants them to be.

Here are some sermon ideas (or lessons for a Sunday School class) that can be used for Father’s Day. I have also included some Bible verses to get you started as you prepare for your church service.

Father’s Day Sermons

The apostle Paul and his relationship with Timothy: This is a great way to show the importance of godly role models for young men. You can find most of the relationship between Paul and Timothy in 1 and 2 Timothy, especially the parts where he calls Timothy his son and speaks to him directly, giving him instructions and speaking to him as if he were his own father.
God as the ultimate father of every Christian: When Jesus teaches his apostles to pray (in Matthew 9:6-13 and Luke 11:2-4) he shows them a lot about the family of God. His prayer beginning with “Our Father” gives us a lot of insight into how God is our Father. You could potentially use this as a springboard to showing God’s fatherly love for His followers.
The heart of God for the entire world: In John 3:16, the Bible expresses the father’s plan to send our Lord Jesus Christ to the whole world. This shows God’s heart for the world as that of a father who wants to save His people from their sins.
The story of the prodigal son and the father’s response (Luke 15:11-32): Even though we (and our kids) make a huge mistake, the love of God never fails. We always have an opportunity for a second chance.
The relationship between the Father and His Son Christ Jesus is evident throughout the gospels. There are many passages that speak to the love and communion between the Father and the Son, which makes their relationship a great example with practical ideas for us in our earthly relationships.
What does the Old Testament teach us about Father’s Day? There are examples of Fatherhood (Abraham and Isaac), instructions for fathers (Deuteronomy 6), and many other ideas that you could use from the Old Testament for a father’s day sermon.
Father’s giving good gifts out of their great love for their children (Matthew 7:11): The New Testament passages talk about how the Father gives good gifts. The goodness of God and His grace and mercy towards His children are evident throughout the Bible, and these could be used to preach a Father’s Day sermon or teach a Sunday School lesson about the goodness of God and how we can seek to imitate Him in our relationships with our sons and daughters.
God the Father as the perfect example for how to treat our own children: This one goes with the above, but even deeper, you could go through many qualities of God as the perfect example of fatherhood.
The importance of teaching the way of the Lord to our children (Ephesians 6:4): Father’s day would be a great time to remind parents of their responsibility to disciple their children. Even the man who is a young father should understand that he needs to teach god’s word to his children. Single parents can also do the little things to bring up their children the right way according to what God teaches in the Scripture.

I hope these sermon ideas will help you as you celebrate Father’s Day this year.

A few other things to remember are that not all families are the same. A quick search on the internet will show you that fatherlessness statistics that say that 25% of all children live without a biological, step, or adoptive father in the home. This leads to many consequences. There is much stress on this special day, and many children suffer from abuse or lack of parents in their lives. Many people have a distorted view of what fatherhood is because of the lack of examples in their lives. The church can help with this by doing the small things and helping both young people and adults understand what God intends for the family.

I hope you have a happy father’s day and that these ideas help you with your preparation for such a special day.

How to Get Planted in a Community

A few weeks ago I preached a sermon titled, “Stop Going to Church.”

The premise was that simply attending church is not going to lead anyone to the kind of spiritual growth or community that God wants for us. If we are going to really, truly grow in Him, then we need to invest in a local church and plant ourselves in that community.

I thought about the way that the Bible describes the righteous, comparing them to trees that are planted by rivers of water, and then thought of ways that we can PLANT ourselves in our local church. Here are the five ways below. You can also watch the video summary of this part of the sermon by clicking here.

5 WAYS to PLANT Yourself in a Community

Prioritize participation: You cannot be planted in a community by attending once a month. Unless we place a priority on participation–even when it isn’t convenient–we will not be planted.

Let others into your life: It is one thing to participate, or attend regularly; it is completely different to allow others to be involved in your life. I often do not want to let people in because I am either fearful of what they will think of me or do not feel I can trust them to be around for the long haul. There are many reasons people do not let others into their lives, but it is essential for community.

Accept accountability: Being planted in a community means that I will be accountable to others in that same community. There are expectations. If I want to belong, I have to accept that there will be things asked of me. This is often not an easy step, but it is important nonetheless.

Nurture relationships with Jesus: In a church community, we often talk about all kinds of things except our relationships with Jesus. This is one of the most important parts of being part of a Christian community. We all need to seek ways to encourage others in their relationship with Jesus. This nurturing of each other will give us spiritual growth like we’ve never seen, and we will begin to delight in the Lord.

Trust in the Lord: The final thing is to trust God, both in the good times and in the bad times. Things are not always going to be incredibly good in the community where you have chosen to plant yourself. Things might even get ugly. There might be storms that come your way. But a part of being planted is to trust God alongside those who are planted around you in the good times and the bad times.

These are five things you can focus on as you seek to plant yourself in a community.

Which one of these is hardest for you personally?

Leave a comment below.

Thoughts about Greeting Time at Church

I posted a poll on my Facebook page about church greeting times. It got a pretty good reaction and prompted some interesting conversations. I’m not going to rehash all of the conversations we had on Facebook here, but I do want to make a few observations about it based on the question.

Here’s the poll:

Three Thoughts:

1. The vote was practically split 50/50. If this is true, it means that half of the people in church probably feel the same way you do about this, and half of them probably don’t. If you love it, understand that there’s 50% who probably hate it. If you hate it, there’s probably 50% who love it. Good thing it’s not about you (or me).

2. Age and demographic doesn’t really have much to do with it. It was split down the line, and it wasn’t all young people who hate it or all older people who hate it (or love it). This tells me, again, that this isn’t about ages or demographic. It’s an opinion, and it’s not even generational.

3. Some of the people who voted that they DON’T like the greeting time are pastors. I’ll let you draw your conclusions about that one.

There’s a lot we could say about church greeting time. I’m not sure we can judge a church’s “friendliness” on how the greeting time goes.

This summer we’ve been experimenting a little with that time at our church. We’ve given more time, tried to guide the discussion by giving talking points, and other things. It’s not perfect, and not everyone likes it. But some people have really started connecting better because of the things we’re doing. Others might think it’s the worst thing ever.

I don’t know. We’re just trying to listen to people, follow what we think God is showing us to do, and connecting with each other along the way.

Giving out of a Grateful Heart

On Sunday, we honored our graduates (see pic above) and prayed for them as they step out in faith on the next step of their journey.

After that, John continued the series called “The Process: Becoming More Like Jesus” by speaking about giving of our treasures for Kingdom purposes.

His main points were the following:

1. We are managers, not owners. It’s important to remember that everything we have is God’s to begin with and that He has graciously given us the possessions we have to manage for Him.

2. Overflowing generosity is driven by overflowing gratitude. When we see God as the ultimate giver, it changes the way we give.

3. Our hearts lead us to our true treasure.

During the sermon, John asked me to come on stage to be a part of an illustration. I included that in the Sunday Summary video on YouTube.

Check it out below:

As Important as Ligaments

Could you live without ligaments? You could, but only with great difficulty and pain.

According to this article, there is a woman who lives in Australia that was born with no ligaments. Her name is Lucy Foran. She was born with a rare disease that doesn’t even really have a name for it. All of her joints are partially or fully dislocated, and she undergoes a lot of physical therapy just to be able to walk. Everything is out of place. I love her attitude despite having this condition.

She says,

“I’ve got a family that loves me regardless of what’s going on with my bones.”

The Bible, when talking about the body of Christ–the church–says that above everything else believers are to put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony (Colossians 3:14). The word used for bind is the same root word used for ligaments. The purpose of ligaments are to hold our muscles and bones together. Without them, it is difficult to function.
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Easter Sunday Recap

This week at our church, three other pastors and I shared the story of the cross from different perspectives.

The first one was that of Judas. Judas was pretty much “the least of the disciples.” He was always named last in the list of Jesus’ disciples, and, although his name means “praise,” he was not one to be praised. He betrayed Jesus for just 30 pieces of silver, and then he ended his life after regretting. He must have felt so guilty and discouraged after betraying Jesus with a kiss.

The second perspective was that of the Roman soldiers, specifically the centurion. He and his men were trained to torture and execute the enemies of the Roman Empire. After mocking and beating and spitting on Jesus, they crucified Him. But after Jesus yielded up His spirit, the darkness, earthquake, and tearing of the curtain in the temple caused them to reflect, “Truly this was the Son of God.” Imagine the grief and despair they felt knowing they had physically killed the Son of God.
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