I'm going to ask you this morning, please, to turn to the book of Job chapter 1. Job chapter 1. Let's read beginning at verse 1. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day. And they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them. And he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus Job did continually. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we ask now your blessing upon this time of preaching. Help me, Lord, to remember the things that you have taught me this week. Lord, help me to communicate clearly your holy word. Please watch over this time in such a way, Lord, that I would not dishonor you in any way by anything that I say or any way that I would handle your scriptures. Lord, help me to rightly divide them. And then in the power of your Spirit, Lord, may you take your word in hand and deal with us this day. Lord, we ask you this in Jesus' name. Amen. There is a picture here in this Old Testament passage of fatherhood that has caught my attention more than once as I've read through God's Word, but until this week I had never looked at this particular part of it in a lot of detail. We're told of this righteous man Job that he sacrificed for his sons and daughters. We're told that after their feasting, He summoned them and then no doubt after speaking to them and instructing them, He offered sacrifices for each one before God. And this morning and tonight on this Father's Day Sunday, I want us to look at this account and I want us to pay attention to some lessons that it teaches us about what it means to be a godly father. And even though we're going to take a look at Job as a father this morning, I invite us all to take note of the qualities that just speak of godliness in general, because there are lessons here for more than just fathers. And I would also exhort the mothers to apply what we learn here about Job as a father to your own role as a mother in the appropriate way as it applies. But there are two things we're going to see from these verses this morning and tonight. This morning we'll focus on the first, tonight we'll come back and look at the second. This morning I want us to look at the happy state of his family. The happy state of his family. And then tonight we're going to come back and look at the holy state of his family. I want us to see this was a happy family and I want us to see that this was a holy family. Now, family set apart unto God, and I want us to see that these two things can never be divorced. Where you have true holiness, there will be the right kind of happiness. And I know the distinction between happiness and joy and all of that. I'm telling you, though, where there is holiness, there will be joy. Where there is holiness, there will be happiness. And so we'll see this together today. But the first thing I want us to notice about Job's family, before the time of His great testing, before He was tested in the way that He was. His family was a family characterized by happiness and unity and love. As feast days would arrive, or special occasions, we're not exactly sure what these feast days were. It may have been birthdays, because you'll notice it says in verse 4, His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on His day. And so this may be a reference to birthdays, we're not certain. But what we know is that when feast days would arrive or special occasions, the brothers would take turns hosting the other brothers and their sisters in their homes. It says in verse 4, his sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. Ten children in all, seven brothers and three sisters. This is a happy picture. We're wrong if we think of these as riotous gatherings or we think of these as sinful gatherings going on in their homes. It's quite clear that Job was a righteous man. God professed him to be. God pronounced him to be. Verse 8, the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? That there's none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. I have no doubt if these had been just outright sinful gatherings of his children, Job would have addressed it. In fact, he demonstrates later on in the section we're in. He didn't have any problem calling for them to come to him, did he? He didn't have any problem addressing them. He didn't have any problem offering sacrifices on their behalf. So if these gatherings had just been sinful and wrong in and of themselves, Job would have addressed it. But it doesn't say that he did that, and so that indicates to me these were not sinful gatherings. In fact, even when he expresses his concerns, notice what it says in verse 5, and when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would sin and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. If these had been sinful gatherings, he would have known they had sinned. So he doesn't say, I know they've sinned in these gatherings they're having and I've got to address it. No. He says, maybe my children have sinned as they've gathered together. And when he expresses his concern, you get some indication of the nature of the sin that he's concerned about. He doesn't say, I'm concerned that they may have gotten drunk. I'm concerned that they may have been involved in some lewdness. That's not what he says. He says, I'm concerned they may have cursed God in their hearts. Or as some have translated it, not praised God sufficiently. The idea is that perhaps in their enjoyment of one another, in their happy get-togethers, he's afraid that his children may have been guilty of not honoring God as they should. Maybe by becoming loose in their conversation. If you think about Christmas time or you think about Thanksgiving or you think about birthday parties and we get our families together and there we are having a good time sometimes if we're not careful, we don't watch over our speech as we should and we talk about things we shouldn't talk about. Beloved, I do want us to remember gossip is wrong even in the home. To slander people and to run others down and that sort of thing, that's wrong even in your private conversations. And so maybe Job was afraid they had sinned against God in that way, or maybe he was afraid that they just neglected to really reflect on God's blessings. That in the midst of a celebration, if it were a birthday celebration or whatever, maybe he's concerned they didn't think about what they should think about. They didn't reflect on what they should reflect on. They would be guilty of dishonoring God by just celebrating with a purely human point of view and forgetting the divine, forgetting the eternal point of view. Maybe he was afraid they just wouldn't be as thankful as they should be in their hearts. But Job didn't forbid the meetings. He doesn't seem to be grieved in any way by the meetings. And so I don't think these were sinful gatherings. I think these were happy gatherings, joyful gatherings. The places where they gathered indicated it was fine. They gathered not in a tavern somewhere, but in their homes. The people with whom they gathered indicated it was okay. They didn't call together the ruffians of the community. They were gathering with their brothers and sisters. The purpose for which it says they gathered, nothing wrong with that. They gathered together to feast, to celebrate, nothing wrong with a feast. This is a happy scene. This is a happy family. And there are some other marks here as well of a happy home. Not only the fact that they feasted together and they gathered together, but here you have a picture of children who have graduated from their home, so to speak, and they are established in their own right. Because when these boys would host one another and their sisters, they were hosting each other in their own houses. We all as parents know that's a great goal, isn't it? Not that our children would be gone, but that we would have raised them in such a way that they are established on their own. That they have grown up, and they have matured, and they've put down roots, and they have homes, and they have families, and they're able to make it, and they worship God in the midst of it all. That's our goal. And so apparently Job had seen this accomplished. Here were his boys on these feast days. They would call their brothers to their houses and they would call their sisters and there they would feast together. And so the children were graduated and they were established. They had sufficient means to serve each other as hosts. So it seems also financially they were established as well. Something else here, his children obviously enjoyed each other. You know what, there are many families that don't enjoy each other. There are many families that are torn with strife and jealousy, but not Job's family. Sons and daughters getting together may have also been that this family was one of not many that did worship the true God and so these get-togethers may have also been a way of strengthening one another and encouraging one another in the faith. But you even think back about biblical families and you can think of other kinds of examples. Abraham had Isaac and Ishmael to deal with. Isaac had Jacob and Esau. Jacob had Joseph and his brothers. And you remember the jealousy of the brothers toward Joseph. David had his problems with Absalom and in other ways. But here's Job's family. And the sons and the daughters enjoy each other, spend time with each other. That speaks of a happy home. And something else, his children served each other, rotating, hosting these feasts so that they demonstrate an unselfish attitude. A joy in serving as a host, a joy in serving one another in almost every way we can see here. They're getting together, enjoying each other, hosting each other, established in their own homes, able to do it from the standpoint of provision. All of this says this was a family where there was joy and peace and enjoyment of life. And we need to remember they had been raised under Job's influence. That's why I say I think this is instructive, not only about godliness in general, but this is instructive concerning what a godly father should be. A godly father teaches and models what it means to enjoy what the Lord gives us, but to do it as unto the Lord. Let me say it to you another way. A godly father is not a long-faced father. A godly father is not a father who cannot smile, who cannot laugh, who would suck the joy and the life out of every situation. That's not what it means to be a godly father. And yet in some realms of Christianity, that is almost the impression that we're left with. That if you are godly, you have got to be miserable. If you are godly, then you can't have feast days. If you're godly, you can't have celebrations. If you're godly, you can't be lighthearted. You can't smile, you can't laugh, you can't have a good time. I think it's very apparent that's not what Job subscribed to. There are those who would have us believe that all merrymaking is sin. There are those who would have us act in a way that we would quench and kill almost every joyful expression. But Job didn't do that. A good father's not silly. A godly father has a spiritual seriousness to him. He is spiritually sober. But He still allows and even teaches and models that where salvation has arrived, there is a reason for joy and enjoyment in life. I think about 1 Timothy 6.17, it says, "...As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to," what's the last word there? Enjoy. There is that amazing Spirit-produced perspective. We are humble people. We hold loosely to earthly things. Our hearts are fixed on God, yet we realize that everything that comes to us has come to us from His hand, And God gives us the power to enjoy it in a way that glorifies Him. And fathers, we're to lead in the modeling of that, in the teaching of that, in the example of what it is to enjoy God, and as a result of enjoying God, to enjoy one another, to enjoy life, and to do it all in a way that glorifies our God. Dads, our homes will reflect our influence. And I would ask us today if our homes are happy places. I would ask us today if the joy of the Lord is evident in your family. Is there peace in your home? Do your children love each other and love you? Do they enjoy each other? and in the midst of your happy moments as a family. When you think about, well, this has been a good time for our family. This is when we have enjoyed each other and enjoyed ourselves. I wanna ask you, were those also times that were enjoyed as unto the Lord? If the happy times for your family have been the times when God is not even acknowledged or thought of or remembered, that says something about the kind of happiness you know, doesn't it? Now, if it's true joy, if it's that kind of happiness that characterizes the godly, then while we enjoy what God has richly provided and enjoy it, we do it humbly, not setting our hearts on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, and we realize He is the provider, He is the giver of everything we have. so that we enjoy Him even as we enjoy what He's given. We enjoy Him even as we enjoy one another. And so the first point I would make this morning is Job's family was a happy family and he was a godly man. Now the second thing I want you to think about in terms of this happy family is, what makes for a happy home? It's obvious in this picture that his children had learned this and they enjoyed these times together, yet they were still responsive to their father and responsive to his concerns. When he calls for them, they come. He sacrifices over them. This was a godly family as well as a happy family. What makes for a happy home? Well, the first thing we can see here is if there's going to be a happy home, there have to be the right priorities. Fathers, do you want to lead your family in a joyful way? Then your priorities have to be right. Job was a very wealthy man, wasn't he? We're told in verse 3, he possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, had very many servants. In fact, you want to know how wealthy he was? He was the greatest of all the people of the East. That's who he was. He was wealthy and apparently his sons were also established from the standpoint of wealth. They each had their own home. They were each able to host one another. And there are many men in this world that if all is well on the financial fronts, if they're doing well financially, if their children are set up and their children are doing well from that point of view, there are many men in this world that if their kids just get together, You know, if we just have enjoyment in terms of relationships in our home, if we're not at one another, if we're not fighting with one another, then my concerns are all alleviated. I am absolutely content. That's all I care about. Are we making it in this world? Are we making it with each other? That's all I really care about. There are many, many men and women, that's exactly how they think. But not Job. This was not the chief concern for Job. Not that they had enough to entertain one another, not that they enjoyed one another. Job's concern had to do with God. How are my children doing toward God? This was his concern. You see it. Look again with me, if you would please, at verse 5. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would sin and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus Job did continually. This was Job's continual concern. How are my children doing toward God? Are they properly honoring God? Are their hearts toward God? Could it be that they're not giving God the proper glory in their hearts? This was his priority. Dads, let me ask you this morning, is this our priority? Is this the number one concern that we have for our own lives and for the lives of our children? What is our relationship to God? How are our children doing toward God? How are their hearts toward the Lord? Is that the most important thing to us? Or is it your job? Is it your finances? Is it how you're doing materially? Is it how they're doing educationally? Or athletically? Or in terms of their reputation or in terms of their achievements? What is first? What is at the head? What really matters above all else? Is it our relationship to God? Because that was it for Job. This was a man who had it all and yet that's not what he had in terms of what he was holding on to. In fact, later on, we learned he lost all his wealth, didn't he? Had it all wiped out in a day. You remember what he said? He said, the Lord gives, and the Lord what? Takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Job wasn't enamored with his own wealth. He loved God. And what was first on his concern for his children was that they loved and honored God. You want to have a happy home? Your priorities have to be right. Your priorities have to be right and what has to be at the head of the list is the relationship we have with God. There's a second thing we notice about what makes for a happy home, not only right priorities but also a personal commitment to the Lord on the part of a father. I'm talking this morning about a father's contribution to a happy home. Your priorities have to be right. Dad, but also you, yourself, have to have a personal commitment to the Lord God." This concern that Job had for his children, it was only the expression of his concern about himself. The Bible tells us in verse 8, when the Lord spoke of Job's character, the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? If there's none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, notice, who fears God and turns away from evil. Job as an individual feared the Lord, made it his point to turn away from sin, turn away from evil. Job was sensitive about his own sin. And it was because he was sensitive about his own walk with God, sensitive about his own sins, feared the Lord in his own right, that's why he was concerned about his children. That's why he was concerned about their sin. And whether or not they were fearing the Lord properly, This is what makes for a happy home. When the Lord is honored in that home and the one leading the family in that worship of the Lord is a man who is himself passionate about God. Dads, if your sons and your daughters fear the Lord the way you do, and if they turn away from sin in the same way you turn away from sin, how will they be doing? How will they be doing? Job was simply expressing concerns for his kids that he had already lived himself. Is that what you're doing? Is that your example? So we see his priorities were right. His concern was right. His personal commitment was why he had that concern. There's a third thing we see about his contribution to this happy scene that we witnessed this morning. A happy home needs a father who is a consistent witness and example. The way this is worded makes very plain. This was not an occasional thing for Job. He wasn't hit and miss in his concerns. It says in verse 5, when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them. He would do this. He didn't say He did this like on one occasion. He would do this. Whenever they would have these feast days, He would do this. In fact, He goes on to tell us, thus Job did continually. Job was a model. He was an example of godliness every single day. Was he a perfect man? No, but he was an upright man. He was a man of integrity and character. He really did love the Lord God. So that this was an expression of a consistent walk that Job had with God, a consistent model and example for his children. This is what's going to make for happy homes in this church that we have fathers who consistently and genuinely Walk with God. And they set that pattern for their children. Our relationship with God has first place. Our relationship with God is something that has first place in dad's own life. Our relationship with God has first place in dad's life every single day. That makes for a happy family. I say it this morning, loving you and caring about you, but no doubt there are dads sitting in this place right now that you know you are not a model and an example for your family. There are dads sitting in this place right now that you know if your wife, if your children followed your spiritual example, if they lived on your spiritual temperature, they would not honor God. What is the answer for you, Father? One is, you may need to be saved. There are men in this place this morning that the reason why you don't set that example and you don't lead your family is very simple. You don't know the living God. You have never repented of your sins and put your faith in Christ in a saving way, in a way that God himself has produced so that your life is transformed forever. I remember well when my father came to Christ. I remember the difference. My dad professed to know Jesus long before he actually knew Jesus. And I remember what it was like to go to church twice a year on Christmas and Easter. And I remember what it was to head off to church on a Sunday morning on those occasional times when we went, and halfway there, turn around and go home because of an argument. And in the back seat, my brother and I go, Sad. I remember it. But I remember when my father ended up in a hospital and a faithful preacher at that time visited him and witnessed to him and I remember my dad came home a different man. He thought he had already been saved. He thought it was a recommitment. Later on it became apparent that's when the Lord saved him. But I'm telling you at that Instant, our family changed. And all of a sudden, we were in church consistently and I was sitting under the preaching of the gospel. And it was through what God did in my dad's life that at 16 years of age, though I had prayed a prayer when I was seven, at 16 I was saved. What happened? How did we go from a family where it was my mother always wanting us to go to church and always trying to be an example to the family? It was my mother who was a force in our home for Christ. How did it go where all of a sudden my dad was leading the way? He really got saved. The Lord saved him. The reason why some of you men are lagging behind and your wife brought you here today and she's begging you to go to church all the time and asking you to go with her, the reason why is no matter what you say happened to you when you were 7 or 10 or 12 or 18 or whatever, the reason why you don't have a love for God in your heart is you lack the salvation that gives a man that love. This is not something you can fake. It's real or it isn't. You're a new creature or you're not. You love the Lord or you don't. Job was able to lead the way because he loved the Lord God. And so when you have a happy family, you have right priorities. And you have right priorities because of a personal commitment to God. And this commitment that you have to God is not hit and miss, it is consistent and it is real and it is genuine because of what the Lord has done in your life. There's a fourth thing that makes for a happy home when you talk about the influence of a father, and that is a loving relationship with your wife, their mother. Now, this is obviously something behind the scenes in Job's case. I'm not certain what kind of woman Job's wife was. We're not given a clear picture. What I do know is that after they go through the hardship that they go through, where he loses his children, and he loses his wealth, and he loses his health, she demonstrated, we can say this, at the very least a great weakness. Wouldn't you agree? When she said, why do you hold fast your integrity? Then what did she say? Curse God and die. You wouldn't exactly put her up there as a woman of great faith, would you? But you know what, sometimes we sit here rather smugly and we laugh at her, but I wonder how we would respond. when if in a matter of moments, so to speak, you lose your children, you lose everything you ever had, and then your husband himself is stricken from head to toe with loathsome sores. I don't know that she wasn't a woman of faith in the living God, that she wasn't saved. What I do know is she at that moment expressed great foolishness. and it was great weakness, but here's what I want you to remember with me. Job himself has experienced everything she has. He lost wealth too. He lost his children too. He lost his health. And here she is saying words to him that had to be like a searing hot iron in his heart. I don't think that's what you would want to hear right then. And yet even then, notice what happens. Look at Job chapter 2. Look at verse 7. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes. Then his wife said to him, do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die. But he said to her, you speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil? In all this Job did not sin with his lips." What I want you to see is, He did not, contrary to what some commentators say, I can't see it in the text, he did not just flat out call her a fool, did he? What he said is, you are talking like one of the foolish women. That's what he said. And neither did he at this time separate himself from her. He didn't say, shall I receive good from the hand of God and not receive evil? That's not what he said. What did he say? receive good from God and not receive evil? In other words, in her weakness, if that is all it was, she may have been lost, I don't know. But in her weakness, he was the strength. Even when she is in a sense personally attacking him, he doesn't sin against her. He doesn't sin against God with what he says. Job was a man of integrity. I know this, no man should ever think of himself as upright or righteous or a man of integrity if he doesn't treat his wife in a godly way. If Job was indeed a man of integrity, and he was, God Himself pronounced him to be, I know this, he loved his wife. And he treated his wife rightly. And he was a model and an example to her as well. He had the right kind of attitude toward her. We can be sure of that. He had the right kind of affection toward her. We can be sure of that. And that makes for a happy home. And that makes for a good father. You know why we have miserable homes sometimes? Because we have miserable marriages. Do you know why we have miserable children? Because mom and dad don't get along. And dads, I want to ask us this morning, where are you at in all of that? What contribution are you making? Where are you standing? Are you honoring God in the way that you love your wife, in the way that you treat her, in the way that you respond to her, in the attitude you have toward her, in the affection you have toward her? How do you respond in her times of greatest weakness? When she says things that only foolish women would say, when she reacts in a way that she shouldn't react, are you the strength that the home needs and that she needs? You know, we are to remember that our wives are the weaker vessel. Are you the strength that the home needs and that she needs by God's grace and by God's ability and by what God is doing in your life? Are you ready to be that spiritual strength and that model and that example even in your speech in those times? It is a happy family that knows that holiness is not long-facedness. It is a happy family that knows that holiness doesn't rule out enjoying each other and enjoying the life that God has given and even feasting together. It is a happy family that has a father who has his priorities right because he is committed to God personally. And that commitment is consistent and strong and clear because he's saved. It's a happy family that has a man in it who teaches his children how to love each other and how to enjoy each other by the way that he loves and enjoys his wife. This family was a happy family. And tonight we'll come back and see it was also a holy family. Let me ask us as we finish this morning, is your family in a happy state right now? Your family, Is it in a happy state? Is it spiritually healthy? And Father, are you an example of the things that make for a happy family? And my exhortation to you this morning is that if you'd have to be honest and say, you know what, Richard? Right now our family hasn't been a happy place. It's not been a joyful place. And sir, I call upon you as from heaven, as from God himself on the authority of his word. You lead the way. You lead the way. You repent of whatever sins are yours. You lead the way. And maybe even there's a man here this morning that you know your need is to be saved. You've been holding on to some profession you made years ago, but if you'll be honest about where you are, there's a lack of love for God in your heart. And it's because you have not known what it is to truly take hold of the Son of God who died on a cross to pay for all the sins of all whom he will save, who was raised from the dead, who's alive. Listen, the living Christ does not forgive sins and leave a man like he was. The living Christ not only forgives sins, but He changes a man forever. Are you in need of that salvation? Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we thank you, Lord, for this picture that we have in your holy word of a family where you were honored and loved and followed. The picture of a godly man who was a model and an example to His children and even to His wife. And Lord, on this Father's Day, my prayer for myself and for each man in this building that, Lord, we would allow You to work in our lives in such a way that we would be similar examples. Lord, I pray for my brothers and my sisters here this morning whom You've saved. Lord, I pray that in our hearts we would desire to honor You in our families, Lord, to worship You there so that our homes are happy and joyful places, yet also holy places. And Lord, I pray for the man or the woman here this morning who is still in need of Christ. Lord, we ask in Your great mercy that salvation, even this day, might come to a home by coming to a heart. We ask You this in Jesus' name. Amen.