1. Today is "Father's Day."  Being a father is a very difficult job.  There have been men that were greatly used by God but they were failures as fathers.
2. Consider Samuel.  He was a great man of God, but Samuel failed as a father. First Samuel 8:3 says, Samuel's "sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment."
3. And what about King David?  He was a man after God's own heart (I Samuel 13:14).  David was a great king but a poor father.
4. Another great king of Judah was King Jehoshaphat. But Jehoshaphat allied himself with Ahab, the wicked king of Israel. This proved disastrous for Jehoshaphat in that his oldest son, Jehoram,  married the wicked daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.

I. KING JEHOSHAPHAT WAS A COMPROMISER.

1. There are many Christians like King Jehoshaphat – they are saved, but they compromise.
2. In the case of King Jehoshaphat, we see several instances when he disobeyed God's commandment not to fellowship with the ungodly.
3. Ephesians 5:11 says, "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."
4. King Jehoshaphat disregarded this commandment and he fellowshipped with wicked King Ahab.  King Jehoshaphat was disobedient when it came to being separated (cf. II Chron. 18:1-3; 19:1-3).
5. When we refer to "separation," we mean Christians must be separated from sin, separated from the world, and separated from worldly people (cf. II Cor. 6:14–7:1).
6. Many Christians are saved and on their way to heaven but they are not separated.  King Jehoshaphat was definitely a saved man, and in many ways he was a good king (cf. II Chron. 17:3-6).
7. But King Jehoshaphat was disobedient when it came to being separated.  I know many churches lacking in good leadership because the men in the church are not separated.  A pastor friend of mine had to remove a deacon because he was buying lottery tickets.
8. Other pastors have to put up with men who smoke or drink or skip church to watch television, etc.
9. We had a fellow around here whose wife kept bugging me to make her husband a deacon, but the man smoked and listened to rock music.
10. First John 2:14, and 15 says, "I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
11. King Jehoshaphat should have had nothing to do with wicked King Ahab. In 1 Kings 22, we see that King Jehoshaphat almost gets himself killed in battle because he disobeyed God and joined forces with Ahab.
12. First Corinthians 10:11 says these OT historical narratives were "written for our admonition."  They were written to teach God's people that disobeying His command to separate from apostasy, even for a "good" cause, leads to nothing but grief.
13. Even after King Jehoshaphat was rebuked by the prophet Jehu, he still did not learn his lesson.  Later on, he disobeyed God again by working with wicked King Ahaziah (II Chron. 20:35-37) and with wicked King Jehoram (II Kings 3:4-14).
14. It does not happen very often, but every now and then some liberal minister will invite me to some ecumenical pastors' conference.  I would be disobeying God if I started to run around with that crowd (cf. II Chron. 18:3-7).

II. KING JEHOSHAPHAT DID NOT SET A GOOD EXAMPLE FOR HIS CHILDREN.

1. A horticulturist by the name of Luther Burbank gave this warning many years ago: "If we had paid no more attention to our plants than we have to our children, we would now be living in a jungle of weeds."
2. As I go out knocking on doors week after week I see many beautiful lawns and gardens, but I also see many wild and unruly children.
3. In fact, many neighborhoods here in NY are more dangerous than the jungle.
4. As fathers we cannot pass the blame on to others.  God has given us the responsibility to make sure our children turn out right.
5. Dads, first make sure you are saved.  Then after that is settled, make up your mind that you are going to raise your children God's way.
6. Children learn by example.  If Dad does not read the Bible, his children will think Bible-reading is not very important.
7. If Dad stays home on Sunday evening and skips the church service, his children will assume preaching is not very interesting.  They may be Baptists but they are being trained to think like Roman Catholics or Episcopalians – just go on Sunday morning and get it over with!

You ask me why I go to church;
I give my mind a careful search.
Because I need to breathe the air
Where there's an atmosphere of prayer.
I need the hymns that Christians sing;
They set my faith and hope on wing.
They keep old truths and memory green,
Reveal the work of things unseen.
 
Because my boy is watching me
To know whatever he can see
That tells him what his father thinks.
And with his eager soul he drinks
The things I do in daily walks,
The things I say in daily talks.
If I with him the church will share,
My son will make his friendships there.

8. If Dad does not pray, it is unlikely that his children will pray.
9. If Dad never helps out at church, he is teaching his children by his example that they should not get involved in church work.
10. If Dad is not a good giver, he is teaching his children that self comes first before God.
11. King Jehoshaphat was a saved man but a poor father.  By associating with wicked people like King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, he was teaching his son Jehoram that wicked people are good companions.
12. I wonder what Jehoram thought when Jehu the seer rebuked his father (II Chron. 19:1-3).  He probably thought, "How dare he speak that way to my father the king!" 
13. King Jehoshaphat should have gathered his family together and told them he was wrong and had set a bad example.  But it is unlikely that he ever did that.

III. KING JEHORAM WAS A WICKED KING.

1. When fathers head down the wrong path, their children will go further down the wrong path.
2. I have known fathers who often got drunk, and their sons turned out to be dope addicts.
3. I have known dads who were promiscuous, and their daughters turned out to be tramps.
4. I have known dads who used profanity, and now their children are so unspeakably vile you cannot stand to be near them for a minute.
5. And what about men like King Jehoshaphat?  Christian men with many good qualities, but weak in certain areas?
6. From fraternizing with King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, King Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram must have thought that their daughter Athaliah was an acceptable mate (II Chron. 21:1-6).
7. Second Chronicles 21:6 says, "And he (Jehoram) walked in the way of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of Ahab: for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife: and he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord."
8. In other words, Athaliah was a bad influence on King Jehoram. In fact, she is one of the most evil characters in the Bible, right up there with her wicked mother Jezebel.
9. You will note that King Jehoram's first order of business was to kill all of his brothers, as well as several other princes of Judah (II Chron. 21:4). 
10. How differently things could have turned out if King Jehoshaphat had been a better father and had set a good example for his son.
11. Maybe then his son would have married a godly wife instead of a wicked wife.
12. The Bible says that King Ahab was the worst king Israel ever had, but that's not all the Bible says.  First Kings 21:25 says, "But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up."
13. King Jehoram married Athaliah, the daughter of Queen Jezebel.  Don't you think this daughter learned much from her mother?  
14. Young people, be careful who you marry!  You just might get stuck with a daughter (or a son) of Queen Jezebel!
15. God judged King Jehoram (II Chron. 21:12-20).
16. What good is being a king if you die such a terrible death? (II Chron. 21:18, 19).  And then go to hell?
17. King Jehoshaphat was a good king in many ways, but he failed as a father.  Jehoram was a wicked son, and he murdered his brothers (II Chron. 21:1-4).
18. What good is being king if your oldest son turns out to be a wicked murderer?
19. Proverbs 17:25 says, "A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him."
20. Proverbs 19:13 says, "A foolish son is the calamity of his father."
21. Proverbs 18:19 says, "Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying."
22. Proverbs 23:26 says, "My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways." 
23. But the problem was that Jehoram was observing King Jehoshaphat's ways.   He saw his father associating with King Ahab.  And so when it was time for Jehoram to pick a wife he chose Ahab's daughter.
24. Actually, Jehoram may not have even chosen Athaliah.  Back in Bible times, kings would often choose mates from neighboring kings' children as a way of forging an alliance (cf. I Kings 22:44; II Chron. 18:1).
25. Ephesians 6:4 says fathers are to bring up their children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
26. "Nurture and admonition" means instruction, discipline, chastening, training, and correction. It means teaching them right from wrong. 
27. This is where King Jehoshaphat failed.

CONCLUSION:

1. We have run out of time but the story goes on and it does not get any better.
2. After the death of King Jehoram, his son Ahaziah became king.  But he too was a wicked king and he reigned for only one year (II Chron. 22:1-3).
3. Ahaziah was slain by Jehu, the soldier anointed king by one of Elisha's fellow prophets.
4. After Ahaziah was killed, his mother Athaliah (King Jehoram's wicked wife – the daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel) murdered all the heirs to the throne ("the seed royal") – her own grandchildren – except her little baby grandson Joash.
5. She would have killed him too but his aunt Jehosheba hid him in the temple for six years.
6. Then after six years, Joash became queen and he had wicked Queen Athaliah executed (II Kings 11:16; II Chron. 23:15).