Let's open our Bibles this morning to the book of Proverbs, chapter 17. Begin reading with verse 6. I'll give you a minute to turn. Proverbs 17, 6. Children's children are the crown of old men. In other words, your grandkids make it worth everything you put up with with your kids. Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. I've heard people say, if I'd known grandkids were this much fun, I'd have had them first. It doesn't work that way. But grandkids can be a tremendous blessing and a tremendous joy. The glory of children are their fathers. Father, we come this morning, and first of all, we thank you. for your great love, your mercy, your grace, for all the blessings that you've given us, most of which we take for granted, most of which we rush through life and never even see the beautiful things that you've created for our enjoyment. But now, Father, as this is the day, that the world has set aside specifically to honor fathers, may we be faithful to your word, may we warn those who need warning, and may we encourage those who need encouragement. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Friday, I was at the gym and a lady that I had met just a couple of days before came over to me and she had found out that I was a pastor. And she said, can I talk to you for a minute? I was like, sure. And she began to talk to me and tell me that her daughter is in a mess of a life. Her daughter has made some horrendous mistakes in her life, and even now is in some things that are unspeakable, unbelievable. And the lady asked me if I would stop and pray with her. So right in the middle of the gym, we stopped everything, and I prayed with this lady for her daughter. I did not get a chance. Her father was with her, and I spoke to him, but I didn't get a chance to find out much about him. But it is true that homes without a father a present father. Everybody has a father. Not all fathers are present. It is a well-established fact that single-parent homes, usually a lady and the husband, not husband, the father is out somewhere else doing something else. I don't know what this lady's child was in. She didn't give specifics. Well, a few. But I thought, I wonder how her father, now the lady talking to me, her father was present. But her husband, the father of her daughter, she never mentioned in our conversation, she never said a word about where the dad was, if the dad's helping. She simply pointed out what a terrible condition her daughter is in. And to me, it stresses the importance of a godly husband and father. Now, let me say in the very beginning, I'm one of those proud parents and extremely proud grandparents. I'm guilty. Guilty as charged. things my kids did, I would have killed them. But when my grandkids do it, it is so cute. It is so funny. I'd have killed my kids if they did it. I'm a proud father. I frequently embarrass my children. I don't do it on purpose. It just happens. When I'm talking to people, it's like, oh, let me tell you about my kids. And my kids turn 30 shades of red, not embarrassed, but dad, just shut up, please. I'm proud of my kids, humanly, I am proud and I tell everybody I can. Today is Father's Day and all across America there will be thousands and thousands of sermons preached on honoring your father and how to obey your father And that is a biblical position that needs to be preached in this modern day of disrespect of anybody and everybody that is in authority. But there's also another kind or another side to that coin. When males I call some of them boys. They're not old enough to be men, but they are old enough to produce an offspring. They are old enough that they are capable of producing an offspring, and in many, many cases, they then desert the lady to raise the child on her own, while they go off and produce another child and another child and another child and another child. In those cases, we need to stand on the highest roof. We need to yell with our loudest youngs. We need to preach and teach and do everything we can to stress the responsibilities of being a father. It's a lot more than biological. It's a lot more than simply producing a child. Being a father is a whole lot more than just the single aspect of it. Nobody's telling kids that today. Well, maybe a few, very few. Very few people are saying, hey, man up. You contributed to this. Now you need to man up and contribute to taking care of that child. But society has made it so that the guy can run off, do it again and again and again, and it seems as if there are very few, if any, consequences for his action. But also we have a situation today It's called, and I think this may not be the exact phrase, but it's called something like the feminization of men. How many of you know what that is? And I'm not talking about a guy. that puts on a dress and pretends to be a lady. I'm not talking about that. But if you watch TV, if you watch society, men, especially on TV, are made to look like sissies, while the woman is the strong one in the family. And I remember You're going to tell your age here. How many of you remember the real McCoys? Ooh, quite a few of us. We're all over 60. What does that tell you? As a kid, I loved the real McCoys. And so about a year or two ago, we found on one of our channels all the real McCoys in reruns. I filmed, I recorded every one of them. And then I started watching them. There's Luke McCoy and Grandpappy Amos, who was the head of the clan. And then there was Kate, the wife of Luke. Now, as a kid, I did not notice this, but as an adult, after I watched a few episodes, I began to notice that Grandpappy Amos and Luke were dumber than a brick, and only Kate had enough brains to get them out of the mess and to straighten up and fix the situation. And I said, that's it. I deleted every one of them off of our DVR and I've not watched one since. Very subtle. Very, very slick. but they snuck in Grandpappy Amos, who, if you remember, he walked with a limp. You younger ones are looking at me like I got three horns or something. But it was a looking at a very innocent family show And the two leading men, Grandpappy Amos, who was the head of the clan, and Luke, who was the head of his family, were too dumb to know anything. That's what's happening all across society. Boys are made to look like sissies. It's the girl, the woman, who is the strong one. It's the woman who has to figure out how to solve this. And then Katie or Kate would always go to Grandpappy Amos and Luke and tell them what they did wrong. And then they both would come back like little whooped puppies and say, oh, you're right. We were so wrong. Well, we live in a day where men are being feminized, women are being masculized, and the concept of being a stay-at-home or even just being a mother is frowned upon. I was talking to a lady a few weeks ago. Her husband is a very prominent man with one of the bigger, larger companies around. And I said, do you work outside the home? And she said, no, I'm able to just stay at home, take care of the kids and all of that feminine stuff. And she said, you would not believe the attacks that I have had because I refused to be a career woman. That's the push today. You got to be a career woman. Being married, having children, raising godly children is frowned upon. But that's not the biblical position. I understand there's a lot of men who are a disgrace to fatherhood. Working as I have over the years, I have seen things and seen with my own eyes things that you would not believe if I told you by men who I wanted to tar and feather, I wanted to tie them up and beat them with a whip, men who abused children, men who abused their wives. Now, I pick on my wife a lot. But in 52 years, I have never, never, never laid a hand on her in anger. I'll walk up and pat her on the back sometime. I said, well, I just, she misbehaved and I had to beat her up. That's a lie and you know it. There's no excuse for any man to beat up a woman just because he didn't like something, but that's not in my notes. There are some disgraceful men. Unfortunately, it's illegal to require an IQ test before you're allowed to father a child. You have to be tested to be anything else, but you can be a father if you can say, I do. You can be a father. No restrictions, no training, no anything. But there are some men who are excellent examples of godly men. I want to look at a couple of each. Let us decide, let you decide which category you fit in. First of all, let's look at some bad examples. As I think of bad examples, the first man I thought of was Lott. nephew to Abraham. Lot was raised in a Christian home. He was raised under none other than Abraham. His dad had died, so Abraham took him in Abraham raised him, Abraham took care of him, you know, oversaw him, provided for him. And somewhere along the line, Lot became greedy. So greedy that he tried to undermine his own uncle who had taken such great care of him. Not only that, but he allowed money to influence his decision to move down toward Sodom. Once he made that first step, it became very easy to make the second step. He moved a little closer, then a little closer, and then a little closer more. And finally, we find him living in the city of Sodom, serving as one of the leaders, one of the judges of the city. Then because of Sodom's sin, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Because Lot was a righteous man, God told him to go up to the hill, to the mountain, to avoid the fire that was going to come down on Sodom and Gomorrah. They get up there, and he lost every one of his kids except two daughters, lost his sons, lost his daughters-in-law, lost his sons-in-law, lost his grandchildren, and lost his wife, all within a matter of an hour or so. He gets up to the top of the mountain. And his two daughters that were with him got him drunk and committed incest with their own father. Where did they learn that? They learned it because their father put money ahead of worshiping Abraham's God. Lots fathered two children, one by each of his daughters, because he departed from God. Put money ahead of worship. Put money ahead of everything Abraham had taught him. And he lost everything, lost his house. Lost his money, lost everything. Then I thought of Eli, the priest. Some of you probably don't remember him. He's not one of the great, outstanding names in the Old Testament. But he was the priest of Israel at that time. He was the high priest of Israel at that time. As such, It was his job once a year to go into the Holy of Holies, offer the blood of an animal, and there make intercession on behalf of Israel. He was the high priest. He had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. The Bible describes those two sons as two of the most wicked, immoral, ungodly sons on the face of the earth. Preacher's kids are perfect. You know why preacher's kids are like they are? because they play with the deacon's kids. Some of you didn't get that. That's why I don't tell jokes very much. He was the high priest, and his two sons turned out to be the most immoral excuses of a human being on the face of the earth. His son sinned, he did nothing. He let him keep serving as priest. He was frequently rebuked by God, but he refused to listen even to the Word of God. And one day a messenger came to where he was and said, oh Eli, both of your sons Hophni and Phinehas were killed in battle. Then I thought of Samuel. Now, overall, the Bible gives Samuel very high marks. Samuel is considered one of the great prophets in the Old Testament. But we read in the life of Samuel that as he got old, he was a circuit riding preacher, as he got old, normally his kids would follow in his footsteps. But his kids did not follow after the Lord. And because of his kids, his sons, not following the path of God, Israel demanded a king. God gave them King Saul, who turned out to be one of the worst kings in the southern kingdom. Then I thought of David, who, without question, Absolutely no question, David was a man after God's own heart. Every king in Judah was compared to David. Every king from David, Solomon, all the way down, was compared to David. They were good like David, or they were not good like David. David became the standard. But one of his kids raped his half-sister. One of his sons killed one of his brothers. One of his sons led an all-out rebellion against his father and even tried to get his father and succeeded for a while, succeeded in kicking his father off of the throne and setting himself up as the king. And for many, many, many years, I read of these people. I was told, I remember I had graduated college pastoring my first church. I was probably 21, 22, somewhere along in there, and I read a book. I think I may still have it. I don't recommend it. But when I read it at about 21, 22 years old, I thought that book was gold. It's called Bobbed Hair, Bossy Wives, and Women Preachers. What a title, isn't it? Bobbed hair, talking about women, bossy wives, and women preachers. He said, In the book, if you raise your kids to the best of your ability, they guaranteed they will turn out to be preachers, Sunday school teachers, deacons, and servers in the church, guaranteed. And then I met some preachers who Kids ended up in divorce. Sons ended up in gross immorality. And I thought, either that book is wrong, or every preacher I know is wrong. If I could find that book, I would not let you read it because you women would be boiled from your feet all the way up. Some of the statements that he makes looking back now were so utterly out of whack that I can't believe I ever thought he was a great example. But moving on, there are some good examples. Genesis chapter 18 verse 19. God is now talking. Well, let me back up. God and two angels have gone by Abraham's tent. Abraham saw them, invited them in for lunch. Abraham ran down to his flock. picked out one of his best sheep, brought it in, gave it to his servants, and they skinned it, they gutted it, and cooked it, and Abraham served the three men. Two of them were angels, that went down into Egypt, I'm sorry, down into Sodom and pulled Lot out. The third man was none other than God himself in the flesh. As they're getting ready to leave, God, who was the third man, looked at the two angels and said, for I know him. pointing to Abraham, that he will command his children and his household after him. They shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of. God was able in the presence of Abraham to say, I know, Abraham will raise his children to serve God. Was Abraham perfect? Boy, I could give you many examples. Abraham was not perfect. But God said that he will command his children and his household. Abraham, in spite of his faults, the only man in the entire Bible that's called, how many of you know what he's called by God himself? You know what Abraham was called? The friend of God. It wasn't perfect. I've never met a perfect man yet. Then I thought of Joshua, who took over the children of Israel when Moses died. In Joshua 24, Joshua's getting about ready to die, and he's giving a farewell speech, as it were, to the children of Israel And he had this to say in Joshua 24 and verse 15. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Was Joshua perfect? No, he did a lot of great things. He was one of two Out of all the men that went into the promised land, Joshua and Caleb were the only two that said, let's go, God will give us the victory. He's considered one of the great men, one of the great men of the Old Testament. How can I be a really good father? Had a man tell me the other day, the only perfect fathers are the ones that don't have children. Some of you agree with that. Yeah, they know everything about raising kids because they don't have any. Proverbs 16, the hoary head, that is when your hair has turned white or turned loose. The hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness. Then our text, children's children are the crown of old men. And the glory of children are their fathers. I was never the perfect father, and I raised three imperfect kids. But to this day, Every one of my kids will still hug me, still tell me they love me. They still want to be around me. My grandchildren think I'm, I'm the greatest thing since candy. Because, you know, you can get by with murder at grandpa's house. grandchildren, or what you hope you passed on to your children and to their children. See, the influence, not a perfect man, because he doesn't exist, but a man who serves God, his children will be the crown of his head and his grand, I'm sorry, his children will be his glory, and his grandchildren will be the crown of old men. How to be a good father, not perfect. Love your children, love them. Many parents think they can show their love by buying things. You want a new car? What kind do you want? I wasn't talking, I was talking to you, but I wasn't talking to you. You want something? You got it. And they think that's showing love. I am not, I never was, I think at this point I'm too old to even think about it, but I was never one that was into sports. I just, I was all thumbs. I had 20 thumbs. I had 10 thumbs here and 10 thumbs on my feet. I was not into sports, but all three of my kids were. And I made it a point to go to every possible game, even though I didn't know what happened. What are they doing? You know, whoa, whoa, why did the ref just blow his whistle? I still don't understand a lot of it. But I wanted my kids, and now we do the same thing for our grandkids. I want them to know that they're loved and that we're there for them. They may not, they won't remember what you bought them. But they will remember the time you spent with them. At least that's the goal of any life. Don't be afraid to tell them, I love you. All things will rust. There will be the proverbial spilling of the milk. There'll be the leaving out of toys that you slip on. They're not gonna be perfect either, and they're young. They don't have all of your experience. There'll be the perhaps broken window. all the other things that kids do, but never let them doubt that your love is there to stay. All of our kids are grown, all of our kids have kids, but I still tell them I love them as often as I can. Isn't that what Jesus said? We love our neighbors sometimes more than we love our own families. Teach them spiritual things. Ephesians 6, fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Colossians 3, fathers provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. If all they hear is everything they did wrong, you should have hit that ball. Somebody explain this to me, can you? A baseball player can make five million dollars a year, and he only has to hit the ball three out of ten times. if he can hit the ball three out of 10 times, and if he hits it four, he's heading to the Hall of Fame. And yet we want our kids to get the hit 10 out of 10. I thank God for godly fathers. I thank God for godly men. I thank God for godly grandparents who still are willing to invest time in their grandchildren to make sure that their grandchildren know that they're there. and that they're there to serve God. Thank you to all of you men that are here today. Thank you to all of you men who are fathers or who will be someday. There's nothing on earth better, well, maybe a couple things. But being a father is a privilege from God himself. Let's be pure in heart. You were here for Sunday school. Let's be pure in heart. And you'll make mistakes. Some of us, lots of them. But let's make sure that those are few and the other things are plenteous. Father, we come this morning.