Father’s Day Sermon, Based on Matthew 9:35 – 10:8

 

Video Clip

 

I’m sure that video brought out memories of your own Father. And what it shows is each Father is unique in their influence on their children. Maybe you could add a few of your own clichés to it.  I remember a few from my own Dad who is here today.  One of them is, “Whatever you do be the very best you can be at it.”  And a second one which is like it, “No matter what you do, your mom and I love you.” 

 

This was tested during my high school days one time when my friends and I decided to go out “egging” cars.  If you didn’t know what that is, it is throwing eggs at cars as they go by from another car.  Fortunately it hasn’t caught on very well, as I really haven’t heard of it since.  Well anyways as we were doing this, we drove by our own home and someone threw one and it was a “direct hit”. 

 

My heart sunk and I announced, “Oh no that was my dad!”  God’s unfailing boomerang had come around.  We didn’t know what to do so we did the smart thing, we took off.  And he followed.  Finally, I realized this was pointless, at some time I am going to have to pay the piper.  So we pulled into my driveway and my friends and I walked up to my Dad expecting to get chewed out, and one of my best friends, captain of the football team, president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes said, “Mr. Anderson, we are very sorry for what we have done!” 

 

My dad looked at us for a moment, saw that we were truly repentant and said, “That’s okay boys, just wash my car!”  A huge relief coursed through my body, we were shown mercy!  Although my dad was tough, he was loving. 

 

Even in the medical world the influence of a father has been shown to be true.   

 

One of the men in our men’s group is listening to a book on tape Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters by Meg Meeker, M.D.  Drawing on her extensive experience as a teen health expert, Dr. Meeker documents the powerful influence dads have on daughters and the dangers that prey upon daughters devoid of paternal guidance and protection.  Dr. Meeker believes that the most important factor for girls growing up into confident, well-adjusted women is a strong father with traditional values.  Such fathers are the best protection against eating disorders, failure in school, STDs, unwed pregnancy and drug/alcohol abuse--and the best predictor of academic achievement, successful marriage and a satisfying emotional life.

 

We know that while it is true for young women, we also know this is especially true for young men.  Judi Hoefs and I were invited to the Orange County Christian Mentoring Alliance luncheon. The highlight of the luncheon was a presentation by the Honorable Robert B. Hutson, the Presiding Judge of the Juvenile Court of Orange County.  He oversees 12 juvenile judges in Orange County. (3 bullets)

 

We learned that there are 3,400 kids living in the foster care system. 12,000 are in the system either “kids of the court” or with social services. There are 120,000 living in single parent homes, many who lack a positive, nurturing adult in their life.   Let me give you two quick stats that I can’t get out of my head. 70% of criminals came from the foster care system. All kids who are in prison have been truant.  Truancy is the gateway to delinquent behavior.

 

Judge Hutson in particular gave a call out to men, to mentor these young men.

He praised the role of women, but quite frankly said the men are needed to step up to mentor these young men in particular.  You will have a chance to hear about this more at our Men’s Breakfast next Saturday.  Basically what they are asking for is men to give 4 hours on Saturday to make a difference in some of these kids’ lives.

 

As we read the passage from today we see Jesus’ model for changing the world.  First lets back up to Matthew 4:23 which, after Jesus’ temptation and calling the first disciples, reveals Jesus Mission Statement, “Jesus^* went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news^* of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.”

 

Simply put the big three for Jesus were teaching, preaching and healing.  Jesus talked and taught about the Kingdom of God, then showed what it looked like. 

 

Then we see the Sermon on the Mount in chapters 5-7 gives one of the most eloquent discourses on how a follower of Christ should act.  Chapters 8-9 show many other of Jesus’ healings.  A man with leprosy, a centurion’s son, Peter’s mother in law, a paralytic, many who are demon possessed, and finally a ruler’s daughter who had died are all healed by Jesus. 

 

Then in verse 9:35 we have what is called an “inclusion”, or a book end as the writer of Matthew says again, “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness.”

 

It says that as Jesus looked out at all the need around him, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Kind of like Judge Hutson, when he sees all these kids with no shepherd! 

 

At this point he remarks to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore to send out workers into his harvest field.” 

 

And this is my favorite part of the passage and key turning point in Matthew’s gospel. 

 

Verse 10:1 says, “Then Jesus^* summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.”

 

 

Jesus sees the need and realizes he can’t do it all himself and sends out the disciples to help him.  As Jesus sends them out he gives them the following instructions, “But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁷As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.^{* 8}Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers,^* cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.”

 

Jesus has this crash course on how to make disciples and then he says, “Okay you have been watching me, now its your turn.”  I can imagine that produced a little bit of anxiety in the disciples, since they had never seen anything like this in their lives and now they were been asked to do it.

 

This reminds me of a guy named John Wimber, who even from afar had a big impact on my life. John came to be known for many things, having been, before his conversion, an early member of the group known as the Righteous Brothers; as well as briefly serving on the faculty at Fuller Theological Seminary where he taught a famous course on signs, wonders, and church growth. But his fame (or infamy, as some would have it) is from his long tenure as leader of the Association of Vineyard Churches and his role as senior pastor of the Anaheim Vineyard in California.

John will be remembered for many things, one of which was his unrelenting commitment to "doin' the stuff," as he often put it. As John told the story, he and Carol visited a church early in his spiritual journey, immediately after he had spent considerable time reading the gospel accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus. Following the service, John approached the pastor and asked him:

"So, when do we do the stuff?" "The ‘stuff'," said the pastor. "What's the ‘stuff'?" "You know," John replied, "the stuff in the Bible, like healing the sick and casting out demons. The stuff!" "Oh," replied the pastor. "We don't do the stuff. We believe they did it back in biblical days, but we don't do it today." With a rather confused look on his face, John could only say: "And I gave up drugs for this?"

John died in November of 1997.  I had a chance to go to his funeral and the impact and influence of his life was tremendous. 

But today as I close this sermon to challenge the men in our midst to not only enjoy Father’s day because you deserve it, I would also like to challenge you to be men of influence for the next generation!  Our young men and women need it now more than ever.  We can complain about the things going on in our culture, the gas prices, the immorality, or we can roll up our sleeves and get to work. 

 

 

 

And just remember it is not only in the big things but also in the small little lessons of life.  Two years ago my parents gave me a great book by Tim Russert, bureau chief of NBC News called, “Wisdom of Our Fathers”.  Tim wrote a book on the New York Times best seller list about his own Father’s influence and then received an avalanche of letters from daughters and sons, who wanted to tell about their own fathers.  Most of whom were not super-dads or heroes but ordinary men who were remembered and cherished for some of their best moments – of advice, tenderness, strength, honor, discipline, and occasional eccentricity. 

One of letters was titled, “The Goose”…  Let’s pray!