Having Done All, To Stand, by Minister Gabriel Adunmade
I will like to first of all congratulate all married men in the church today for witnessing another Father’s Day. Just like a twinkle of an eye, another 365 days have gone by.
It seems like a twinkle of an eye because we are all in good health. Ask those who have serious health issues, they will tell you one night is like a month.
We bless God for His unfailing love in every aspect of our lives; His protection, provision, mercy, favour, the lists are endless.
It is my prayer that if Jesus Christ tarries, we shall witness many of it in good and divine health in Jesus name.
The theme for this year’s Father’s Day is “HAVING DONE ALL, TO STAND” (Ephesians 6:13).
When you hear the sentence; having done all, to stand, the next question that readily comes to mind is having done what?
In this chapter, Apostle Paul spelt out the roles of individual member in a family, the father, the mother, the children, the servant and the master which in most cases is also the father.
But since we are celebrating Father’s Day, our focus or attention will be drawn to the fathers.
Then who is a father? One can define a father in many ways. It all depends on the angle you look at it. To some, a father is a man who has biological child or children.
To some, it could mean any male ancestor e.g the founder of a family or lineage.
It could mean a person who originated or established something as a founding father. e.g father of modern psychology.
To me, a father is a man (married man) who look after total needs of another: physically, material, and spiritual needs in most cases, in a family set up.
And I want to believe this is the type of fathers Paul was addressing here.
Verse 4 of that chapter says
“And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
We have heard several time that it is the duty of a man or father if you want, to love his wife, but here, the bible was specifically drawing the attention of fathers towards their children. How they should deal with them.
Provoke not your children to wrath (do not cause them to be angry). Does that mean we should embrace everything they do? No
Part B of the verse say ‘Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord’. (NLT)
For us as fathers, to effect change in our society, we can’t afford to fail in our roles to our children. God is counting on us.
I have said it several times that the society to some extent is made up of the church while the church is made up of individual family.
What happens in the church is a reflection of what happens in the family. Therefore, The responsibilities of wining the society for Christ lies solely on we father. We must correct and discipline our children in love and in the way of the Lord (unfortunately, the law of the land we find ourselves is not helping in this matter) when I see the way many parent handle their children, when they do something silly, I shake my head, especially when I compare it with the way our parent handle it in those days. God will help us. But we need to help ourselves.
Proverbs 13:24 “Those who spare the rod of discipline hate their children. Those who love their children care enough to discipline them.”
Proverbs 23:13-14 “Don’t fail to discipline your children. The rod of punishment won’t kill them. Physical discipline may well save them from death.”
We are not advocating here that we should be beating our children with rod the way they used to do it in Africa in those days (like a man who beat his son to a stage of coma and a neighbour had to rush the child to hospital).
Rather, what we are saying is that we should be firm when we are correcting them. We should let them see the seriousness on our faces when we are correcting them (there are ways you can say don’t do that or leave that place and they will see the seriousness in you.
In addition to discipline and even more importantly, As fathers and priest of the family, it is our duty to pray for the entire family.
Having done all, to stand, in other words what apostle Paul was saying here is that having leading your family to the Lord in prayer and correct them, for this to be effective, to stand, what we have to do were clearly spelt out in verses 11 and 12
“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
All father in the house, think about this, you are not just raising sons and daughters, you are raising future fathers and mothers. You are shaping lives today that tomorrow will be shaping the lives of generation to come.
The mess we are witnessing today is the result of some fathers at some points who failed to shape the lives of there children.
A child who is not trained in the way of the Lord is liable to pick knife and stab his/her teacher in front of the class or shot another fellow man and still knife him/her (that chain will be broken in our own time in Jesus name. Our generation will deliver the society back to God in Jesus name.
For us not to fail in our duty we need the help of God, for us to receive the help of God we must be right standing with God and lead by example and at the end we shall hear that voice, “well done good and faithful servant, enter the joy of your God”. And that will be our portion in Jesus name.
PRAYER
Father, please make me an agent of change in this generation and bring the society back to God in Jesus name.
This sermon was preached on Father’s Day June 19, 2016, by Minister Gabriel Adunmade