Fathers’ Day is a curios holiday.  It’s only about 100 years old and according to the Almanac for Farmers & City Folk, it’s the single day of the year where the most collect calls are made!  One little boy, when asked to explain about Father’s Day, said, “It’s just like Mother’s Day, only you don’t spend as much on the present.”  Smart kid!

 

But as a father, it’s become increasingly curious for me personally as it demands at least a momentary inventory of what I’m doing…what kind of a father am I?  What am I after ya know?  As a father, my desire for my kids is that they would grow up to be better than me.  You see I know myself, I know my worries, my failures, my regrets…and my heart is to not just provide for them now but to protect their future.  That’s an interesting struggle, a need that runs so deep within me that it’s even difficult to manage…because it is so powerful and so personal that more often than I’d like to admit, I become so focused on their futures, that I forsake their todays.

 

I want to talk briefly this morning about “a father’s reach.”  I know many times you’ve talked about or heard taught “a father’s provision,” or “a father’s role” and I believe those things are vitally important.  That a father would provide for his family, that a father would understand his role as lead servant of his home…vitally important…but as I grow older and especially now, about four years after my own father’s passing, I’m struck with how powerful his presence remains within my life.

 

You see his reach within me is beyond me.  His reach touches you today.  As I share my heart with you, as I walk with the Lord and week after week teach the Bible and prayerfully make decisions and plans for this church family, even as I represent this church family at ministry events and outreaches, my own father’s love and lessons…reaches out…continues on…even after his death.

 

His reach touches my children today, and no doubt my children’s children as no doubt his father reached his children…me…through him.  His reach extends into my marriage today as I often find myself annoying April as I watched him playfully annoy my step-mother for years…

 

You see my father’s reach is beyond me…and your father’s reach is beyond you…whether good fortunately, or bad…unfortunately.  The divine design of father in the heart and mind of human creation…is wildly powerful…and it’s that way for a reason.  You see we have a Father in heaven.  A Father that provides and protects and plans just like the created fathers…and the reach that we observe, that we speak of today…the reach of my father into generations of my family to come is just a picture, a scratch and sniff if you will, of our Heavenly Father’s eternal reach into our own lives. 

 

Maybe the most interesting thought revolving around this discussion is that you kids understand this very well, don’t you?  And I’m not just talking about you kids that may be sitting next to your fathers right now but I’m talking about ALL of you.  All of you have a father, right?  And so all of you kids, you all know this…you know the deep and powerful influence your own father has or has had…or…maybe that he wasted…don’t you? 

 

I heard a story this week.  A true story about a nun who happened to lead a prison ministry. A prisoner asked her if she could get him a Mothers' Day card. She went out and got him one. Soon the word spread and a lot of prisoners asked her to get them Mothers' Day cards. She got on the phone to Hallmark. They sent her 500 cards, and she gave all of them out. Later in the year, she noticed that Fathers' Day was coming up soon. She got on the phone to Hallmark and they said, "Sure, Sister", and they sent her 500 Fathers' Day cards. Fathers' Day came and went and not a single prisoner asked for a card. To this day, she still has all of them.

 

Do you sense their pain in that story?  Every one of them has a father, that is undeniable…but that father’s reach has affected them so powerfully…that even from a literal prison of a life…their wounds remain fresh…

 

What blows me away…what breaks my own heart…is that not all fathers understand this…I would dare to say very few…Dads, you may be sitting there this morning and you may testify that you understand this influence…that will either save them from prison or send them there…and yet I would challenge you so very surely.  Maybe you compare your fathering to your neighbor, to your co-worker, to your own father…bad comparison man…Compare yourself to the only One who will retain that title for all of eternity…do you really understand your reach dad?   

 

We have some descriptive examples of a Father’s reach in the Bible.  I’ve chose two to share with you today.  One father who accepted the full weight of responsibility…one father who understood his generational reach…and one father who didn’t.  I’d like to introduce you to them this morning, as we observe Father’s Day so that maybe you fathers in the room, you dads, you men that are called to be fathers to the fatherless (that’s all of you by the way), may walk out of here with a clear understanding of the treasure you are creating, to last generations and reach beyond your own knowing, or the regret that you may be fashioning…not only their regret, but ultimately your own…

 

And then finally, before we dismiss this morning, I’d like to introduce you to the Father that you may not know.  The One who calls Himself your Father, your Provider, Your Savior, even if you don’t call Him those things…or even if you don’t acknowledge Him as any of those things…doesn’t matter…He still calls you His beloved, His child…

 

First, I’d like to introduce you to a man named Zacharias.  Turn with me to Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 1 verse 5.  (Read through verse 25)  Now skip ahead to verse 57.  (Read through verse 80)  There’s a lot going on in this story but notice the end of it is that the child grew and became strong in spirit.  Zacharias, as Luke tells us, was a father that was righteous before God…in other words, even before Jesus had come on the scene, (the Savior spoken of by the scribes and prophets), Zacharias had already placed his trust in Him.  Not even knowing His name…but know many things about Him…more than 300 fine tuned details that are given to us throughout the Old Testament of His birth, life and death…and most importantly, how He would take away the sins of the world.

 

And so Zacharias’ trust, his hope, his focus was not on himself, he was too smart for that…he had courageously and honestly sized himself up and faced the fact that is constant of all men…on my own, I am insufficient…and so his life focus was not on himself, but on the Lord man…so much so even his profession was to serve God.  He heard the commandments and the ordinances of God and he did not try to do good, he did not agree with them and intend to do right…he walked in them!  A sure mark of a father that will have growing and strong children.

 

What’s more, he was real with the host of heaven, right?  I mean Gabriel shows up, gives him some amazing news and what does Zacharias say?  Yes!  Do it!  And then question God in his heart…no!  He is real…genuine, not hiding…”How can this be”, he says…but Gabriel had already answered that question…back in verse 13, “your prayers are heard!”  You see Zacharias was not only a man of genuine courage, but he was also a man of prayer…a man that prayed for his children, even before they were born!

 

Now notice Gabriel says, “you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place.”  Seems futile to me.  Zacharias would still be able to communicate, speak if you will…just not with his mouth.  He does so later by writing…and so why, for what purpose does Gabriel do this?  I believe there is a profound lesson here…a deep doctrinal truth hidden in this story about fathers who will produce growing and strong children…they will not speak against what the Lord has said.  They do not challenge or add or take away from God’s Word.  Notice, Gabriel said you will not speak until the day these things take place…until God’s word is fulfilled!  Neither will the wise father folks.  The wise father will reinforce God’s Word in the hearts and lives of his children…and let me tell you, to not do so is to speak against God because those kids are learning everyday…learning a counterfeit, learning to feed and satiate their flesh, learning to serve self…and so to remain silent in the things of God is to amplify the things of this world…

 

Even beyond reinforcing, notice, Zacharias fulfills the Word of the Lord.  “His name is John.”  He lives it out!  Finally, once Zacharias does speak, what is it that he says, “And you child (verse 76) are His, not mine…your work upon the earth is His service, not mine…and my mission is to do all that I can so that you will shine.”  And so the child grew and became strong!

 

A good father no doubt.  Involved in his son’s life, raising a servant of the King, totally cognizant of and responsible for his reach into his son’s life which would reach us…thousands of years later, today.

                                                 

Now I’d like to introduce you to one whose name literally means, “fool.”  A man that rejected his reach, served himself…had to be saved by his righteous wife lest his entire family would have been lost…and ultimately…God took him out…

 

Turn over to 1 Samuel, Chapter 25 and look at verse 2.  (Read all the way to verse 38)  Nabal was an entrepreneur…he had built a prosperous business and no doubt provided a lavish life for his family…feasts and designer wools and the like…but his downfall, the underlying theme as to his monumental failure as a father, as a husband, as a human…was that he did not honor God.  Notice that?  He was harsh in his dealings, he was the kind of guy that no one wanted to be around…pompous, corrupt and selfish.  Even though he was served, he served no one…and above all he cared nothing of building the Kingdom of God which begins in our own homes, in his own home, all because he was too busy building his own.

 

We just read that Nabal’s wife was intelligent, she was praised because of her discernment, she was deeply spiritual and she was a wonderful wife…I mean she went out secretly to cover his behind when the king was coming for him.  Truly a diamond of a spouse and yet Nabal, notice, took her for granted, ignored her, didn’t listen to her…we have a word for this in our dictionary…its macho.  Replace that word with stupid, man.  A good father, a good man will yield the throne of their life…to One worthy to sit upon it…and there is only One worthy and His Word tells us as men to cherish our wives.  Nabal did not.

 

Nabal served his flesh.  He was feasting and drinking while his wife was pastoring.  For his own sin, his own relentless pursuit of glory, his sons were about to be slaughtered and yet he drank.  We may not drink but you may veg…get home from work and that little one has been waiting for you all day, asking about you all day, bothering mom about you all day and what do you do…remote in one hand, dinner in the other…and your kids are slaughtered…and their kids and their kids…because of your reach dad.  Or maybe it’s the hammer, the drill, the hot glue gun…your projects…your kids should be your projects men…your wives should be your prizes husbands…lest you go the way of the fool.

 

And I’m not just talking to biological fathers…I’m calling you out men.  Paul wrote that although we have 10,000 teachers yet not many fathers!  You singles, you married men who don’t have sons and daughters yet, what kind of a father are you?  Foolish?  That neighbor kid that’s father was killed in Iraq…how’s your investment in them?  That ministry at church that goes uncompleted, do you even notice?  That gal at work that always does extra because it’s got to be done and no one else seems to care…do you care?

 

Notice, the way of the fool…a hard heart…a heart of stone.  Dead like Nabal’s.  You get to the point where all you want is peace and quiet…not the loudness of your kids playing or the clamor of the toys crashing against eachother as you play with them…they go to sleep after you, they awake after you…they eat before you get home…and you’re beyond caring anymore, that’s too hard…now you don’t even notice…it’s just life…oh man wake up!  What tragedy as you breed weak children left not knowing what to do as they encounter the difficulties of this life…who stop growing around 8 and serve their flesh just…like…dad.

 

Ultimately, Nabal loses it all.  You’ll lose more dad if you’re not careful.  If you don’t today recognize your reach and responsibility to God’s precious kids that have been entrusted to you…How do you lose more than “it all?”  You lose your all, then they lose their all, then their all loses their all…and so on…all because of your reach…

 

Oh the call to fatherhood is wonderful but with any wonderful blessing and calling there will always be the evil perversion of the enemy lurking and positioning to turn God’s great blessing into a great cursing.  The choice and responsibility…is with you.  It’s with you singles…it’s with you young men…it’s with you coworkers…it’s with you roommates…it’s with you dads. 

 

You are to stand when they can’t.  You are to defend when they fear.  You are to press when they’re strength has failed and you are to serve even when your provision is so utterly lacking that it shames you.  You’re so important, you’re so needed, you’re so powerful…and what’s more, the reality of it all…is that you are so in need. 

 

You are so in need to be led by the Father of us all.  You see you are called to be more than any man can and could ever be and men, the only way to answer that call…is to go the way of Zacharias and wholly give your life to God, YOUR Father.

 

He provides.  He protects.  He teaches.  He loves.  He serves.  He saves…lean in on Him men…press in…learn Him, grow in your walk with Him and in that, reach into the lives of the generations to come through you and through yours and do what you rightfully desire to do in the depth of your soul…grow a generation up, who are strong…who are greater than you.